Return of the King
by A Cullen Wannabe
Summary: When the body of a young girl is found, all signs point to convicted serial killer, Royce King, currently behind bars.  FBI Agent Bella Swan and her team have to race against time to discern who the real killer is before time runs out.
1. Chapter 1

**WARNING: This is a crime drama containing dark themes including murder and the aftermath of assaults of both a physical and sexual nature. Please read this story with extreme caution, understanding that there are disturbing images ahead.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga. No copyright infringement is intended.**

**Author's Note: Time for me to stretch myself as an author again. I love forensic profiling shows. My absolute favorites are Bones, Criminal Minds, and The Closer. Thus being so, I've always wanted to do a crime drama, but haven't been brave enough to try. This is my first attempt at a story with darker themes. As is my M.O. we will also see a bit of fluff from time to time, but as you will see when you finish this first chapter, this will be a very intense, serious drama. I know nothing about real life profiling etc, so please excuse me if I screw up some of the finer details.**

**A big thanks to my hubby and my beta AgoodWITCH for reading this and encouraging me to continue it. **

**Also be warned in advance that my focus at this time is on my original so the updates for this will be few and far between until after it is completed. I'll basically use this as a side project to take breaks or push past blocks with my original. I will most likely be updating on a regular basis by December or January if all goes as planned.**

**Now on with the new story…**

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**The Return of The King**

It was a pitch black, humid, June night. I walked up to the yellow crime scene tape, lifting it to step under while showing my badge to the black and whites guarding the perimeter. They nodded solemnly, shifting their gazes back to watch around them. The flashing blue and reds illuminated my way down the small hill toward the tree line with a dizzying strobe of alternating color as I cursed myself for not grabbing my flashlight. I'd been doing this for four years now, one would think I would be more scout-like and always be prepared.

I stumbled slightly at the bottom of the hill, as McCarty caught my arm with a chuckle. "Careful there, Swan, don't want to have to haul you off tonight as well."

I rolled my eyes and yanked my arm away in a huff. "Quit the shit and tell me what we've got."

Agent McCarty schooled his face quickly, his boy-like charm disappearing to make way for his professional side. He had been on the team back when I started four years before, but passed up the opportunity to lead the squad when the offer presented itself. He claimed his strengths rested solely in investigation, not paperwork and kowtowing to the bosses. When he turned down the job, they then offered the position to me. Honestly, I was shocked. While I had the second highest seniority within our group, I was still not much more than a rookie myself when I was handed the mantle of leadership three months ago. It was different being the boss, but for some reason the position seemed to be a good fit for me.

McCarty handed me a spare flashlight from his waistband as he led me toward the place where our victim lay just inside the line of trees lit by large mobile spotlights. "We have an unidentified Caucasian female, about five foot eight and approximately eighteen to twenty two years of age. She was found in this location approximately two hours ago by a passing motorist who had a flat tire. When they stopped the car, their dog jumped out and ran straight to the remains. We have no official time of death, but Whitlock and Brandon estimate due to the degree of decomposition that the victim has been deceased for approximately 72 hours, possibly more. There has been nearly zero animal disturbance of the remains which they find suspect, and indications have been found at the scene to suggest the body was placed post mortem. At first glance, cause of death appears to be a knife wound to the neck, but with the lack of animal disturbance, the squints suspect potential chemical contamination as well, but we won't know more about that until they can examine the samples and the body in the lab."

We reached the small circle of outfitted CSI scouring the area for clues as the photographer's camera flashed at a place on the ground several yards away where a tech directed for documentation of something he or she had found. As we reached the group, Jasper Whitlock and Alice Brandon were chattering excitedly over something they were examining in a plastic bag while Rosalie Hale leaned over the body with a scowl, examining the physical wounds more closely. I knew that look. This victim had been sexually violated; something that always affected Rosalie quite strongly considering her own past history. Unfortunately, a great number of our cases involved similar atrocities. I often wondered how she found the strength to come to work every day.

Back behind the group, standing alone was the new kid, Edward Cullen. Well, I say new kid, but in reality, he's actually a year older than me, and a whole hell of a lot smarter with a doctorate in Psychology and a master's in Criminal Justice. He was brought into the team to fill out the position when our former leader, who just so happened to be his father, retired, leaving a hole in the team when I stepped up to lead our squad. His eyes scanned the area, as his amazing mind worked, piecing together the scene with his uncanny ability to reconstruct the events to what has been proven time and time again a nearly perfect semblance of the actual event. I had never seen such an adept profiler. I had been known as being gifted, but Cullen was like a savant.

Cullen's apple green eyes reflected off the floodlights set up just a few feet away as he scanned the area again before his eyes focused on me. His expression changed ever so slightly as he gave me a nod of acknowledgement, to which I nodded back before kneeling down beside Hale to get a closer look and see if she had discovered anything disturbing. At this point, the body had not been moved at all in order to best preserve the scene.

"What ya got for me, Hale?" I asked as I slid on the pair of latex gloves McCarty handed me over my shoulder as I nodded up in thanks.

Hale pointed her chin toward the lower extremities as she began talking quickly. "Her hands and feet were bound by what appears to be some kind of rough hewn rope or tie back. She appears to have a great deal of atrophy in her legs which would suggest that she either was tied up for an extended amount of time, or had some sort of condition which would not allow extensive use of her legs. I will discover more once we get her back to the lab. She has bruising on her inner thighs and hips, which might suggest sexual assault. In addition, she had several scars on her arms and a large cut on her neck, which sliced her jugular. There doesn't seem to be nearly enough blood on her body to suggest that she bled out, but since she has been moved, there is a possibility it was wiped away before the transition, or she had been positioned at the time that the wound was made so as to make the blood drain away from her body. It could also be possible that the wound was inflicted post mortem, which would then minimize the amount of blood spilled. She also has a vertical incision on her abdomen that appears to be from a very recent surgical procedure. I'll know more once I can examine her more closely. Identification will be most difficult as her facial structure was broken beyond recognition, her teeth removed, as well as her fingertips."

I stood up, moving around the body to examine the things she pointed out. "Good, good, Hale. Thank you. Have they completed processing the scene yet? I would really like to examine the rest of her body and get back to the lab before the storm cell reaches us."

Lightening illuminated the sky to the west, punctuating my desire to move the body as quickly as possible as I looked up at McCarty.

"Yes, I believe that they are done." He looked around locking eyes with several workers who nodded back.

I looked back up to see Whitlock and Brandon packing up their supplies, leaving a few things out in case there was more evidence underneath the body to be collected, as Hale repositioned herself in order to examine the body after the move. I glanced over to see Cullen looking at me intently, his brow furrowed deeply. I gestured for him to come talk to me as I moved to ask the photographer to get a close up of something that looked off to me before we repositioned the poor girl's naked form.

I jumped when I turned back around to find Cullen standing next to me. It never ceased to surprise me how stealthily he moved. I shook off my fright as he tried to hide an amused smirk. I rolled my eyes at him before looking him square in the eyes.

"I haven't known you long, Dr. Cullen, but I can tell something is bothering you. What's wrong?"

He sighed, glancing around him again before looking back at me solemnly. "Something is off. There's something I'm missing, something more…"

Just then, McCarty and two other techs he asked to assist shifted the body to expose the victim's back as the group gasped and Hale let out an uncharacteristic scream. Cullen and I dashed to her side to see what moving the body had uncovered, the sight making my stomach boil with bitter bile.

On the back of the victim words were carved into her flesh along with an intricate rose stained black with congealed blood, under the body, a purple and blue infant lay curled into the fetal position, it's neck having the same wound as the woman lying over it, and the same rose carved into its back.

Hale turned and ran for the tree line, vomiting into the underbrush as McCarty ran after her, while Brandon melted into Whitlock's chest, quiet cries coming from her chest. At some point, I had fallen to my knees at the sight before us, as Cullen knelt beside me, his arm around my shoulder.

"Is this?"

I nodded mutely, staring at the words taunting us all from the back of the innocent bystander in his sick, twisted mindgame.

Okay Team,

Let's see if you can catch

the RIGHT MAN this time.

One year was enough of a vacation,

Time for the real work to begin.

XOXO

The King

"Do you think he's had her ever since?"

I nodded slowly, trying to control my reactions. We dealt with death almost every day, by this point we had learned to separate our emotions from the job, but this was personal. This girl died because we got it wrong…or at least someone wanted us to believe we did.

"Bella?"

I turned away from the blood freezing scene to look up at the new guy as he stared down at me with worry etched in his features.

"Are you okay?"

I froze looking at him before looking back at the body and then to him again before I shook my head no. With gentle hands, he helped me up and led me away from the scene. As we passed, I noticed that the photographer was standing in shock as well. I touched his arm and gestured with my head toward the newly revealed scene as way of order. He shook his head to clear it before moving forward to document the new development.

Cullen led me to a dark area just out of view of everyone and turned me toward him, hugging me to his chest. It only took a part of a second before I began to cry. He comforted me as I cried, stroking my hair, and humming quietly. After several long minutes, I began to regain control, pushing away to look up at him, feeling embarrassed about how I was acting. I was a professional and the leader. I wasn't supposed to succumb to the pressures. I was supposed to be the example.

"I…I'm sorry Dr. Cullen. I.."

"Edward," he replied quietly. I looked up in surprise as he smiled back down at me. "Please, call me Edward."

I swallowed hard and nodded. "Okay, but not while working."

He nodded knowingly before running a hand down my arm. "Are you okay now? Do you feel like you are ready to go back out there?"

I nodded. "Thank you, Edward."

He smiled kindly. "You're welcome, Bella."

I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders before returning to the scene. I barely looked toward the two victims as I began barking out orders. Whitlock and Brandon gathered more samples and swabs before the two bodies were bagged and loaded to be taken back to the lab where Hale, Whitlock, and Brandon would work to get the details and try to get a lock on the poor girl's identity. As the scene slowly emptied of people, I ascended the small hill toward the roadside, pausing to look around one last time. The area had been trampled, but once it was cleared, one last thing that had not been obvious before was highly visible from this higher perspective now that the area was cleared of people and the bodies. The orange flags still in the ground to mark each piece of evidence documented for the case arched in defined lines around the epicenter where the bodies lay, creating a macabre facsimile of the roses carved into the skin of the two victims, reminding us once again that with The King, there are absolutely no coincidences.

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_**Author's Note: This story only has one other chapter currently completed, and two other partially completed, so this will most likely wait long periods between updates, but I've been sitting on the idea for ages and wanted to get it out there. What do you think? I'd love to hear your opinions and maybe even a few theories along the way! **_

_**I will reiterate one last time…please expect very long delays between updates. Several weeks after we push past these first two chapters at the very least!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: Okay, well, I was surprised. My step sibling fic received a far warmer reception, although many of you are stoked about RotK. I'm very pleased with the response and decided to go ahead and give you guys chapter 2, mostly because chapter 1 was almost too intense for most readers and didn't hint to any of the subplot. Chapter 2 is going to be a bit more like what we should suspect from the remainder of the story. This will have a major focus on the investigation with a few romantic subplots, several of which are hinted here. I hope you enjoy. I have another partial chapter written, but I'm not sure exactly when it will fit in as of yet. This will be your last update for quite a little while. **_

_**For the purpose of assisting in visualization, I totally modeled the lab like that of the Smithsonian in Bones. I know it's not your typical setup, in the least, but I'm in love with that show and borrow most heavily from it for this story. Just thought I'd share that :)**_

_**Thanks to my beta, AgoodWITCH for her beta work.**_

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The ride back to the lab was not a pleasant one, as I was the one who had to call and wake the bosses up at two in the morning to inform them that a copycat of our most heinous captured serial killer was on the loose. To say that they were unhappy was an understatement, and the term shooting the messenger never hit so close to home. I closed my phone and rubbed my forehead, wondering how Carlisle did this for thirty years.

The rain was falling hard as Edward pulled my car in front of the lab, reaching over to squeeze my hand gently as a show of support before we exited the car. My stomach dropped as I saw two figures standing under the overhang, obviously in a heated debate. I ran through the pouring rain to join them as my former boss stood arguing with my star medical examiner. At least he took the brunt of that blow for me, because I had already mentally prepared myself for delivering that news next.

"Rosalie, you know you can't work on this case. This is linked to Royce King and you were King's very first assault victim. Your further involvement in this case gives his lawyers grounds to throw out all of the collected evidence. Not only that, it is entirely probable that you are a focus of this copycat. We need to put you into protective custody as soon as possible."

Rosalie shook her head in a halo of whipping blonde hair as her arms crossed tighter across her chest. "No, Carlisle!"

Edward and I reached them at that moment, just as McCarty walked up behind us, taking a protective stance behind Rosalie. I reached my hand out to rest on her arm.

"Rose, sweetie, Carlisle is right. You can't be part of this as much as we all might want you to be. Do you want to risk him getting out on a technicality?"

The fury melted from Rose as a tear fell from her right eye and her shoulders slumped. "Of course not," she whispered, "I just hate feeling helpless. I want to help figure this out."

I stepped forward pulling her into a hug. "I know, sweetie, but this time you can't. Please go home and try to get some rest. I'd send McCarty, but I need him here. He's my best investigator. Who do you think you'd feel most comfortable going with you tonight?"

Rose turned to look sadly at McCarty with a sigh before turning back to look at me. "Is Sam available? I really trust Sam."

I nodded with a smile before glancing over her shoulder to McCarty who frowned, but nodded gravely before disappearing into the building. "Uley's team will be on your detail until further notice. Okay, sweetie?"

Rose let out a defeated sigh before turning to follow McCarty into the building, leaving Carlisle, Edward, and me standing in the damp, cool night air. Carlisle looked at Edward with a small smile and a nod.

"How are you doing tonight, son?"

Edward shrugged with a confused frown. "Okay. Um, what are you doing here, Dad? I thought you and Mom were going to Europe."

Carlisle looked at the ground sadly with a shrug. "She understands. I…I can't leave with this out there. Not until I know King's case is secure."

Edward's frown deepened as he gazed at his father, crossing his arms. "You have to put your foot down somewhere, Dad. There will always be something if you let it. Mom's been waiting for years and years for this."

Carlisle sighed, looking properly abashed. "I know, son. I know."

When their conversation died, I turned to Carlisle in confusion. "So, um, what are you exactly doing here? I mean, are you stepping back into my shoes or…"

Carlisle smiled apologetically at me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I would never do that to you, Bella. You are doing a very good job here. I would never presume to come in here and try to take over. I'm strictly a consultant during this case. I do what you ask of me and I help as much as I can. That's it."

I nodded with a small smile and a long sigh of relief. "To be honest, Carlisle, I'm glad that you're here. I can use all the help I can get."

I glanced at Edward, who sighed, before moving to hold the door open for me. Carlisle followed me with Edward bringing up the rear. As we reached the elevator banks, we found Rosalie standing between McCarty and Uley as they talked intently, Rose pouting between then. She sent me a sad smile as we passed before returning her attention to the men before her.

We climbed into the elevator before riding in silence to the twelfth floor where we slid our ID's through the reader in order to gain access to the floor. The doors slid open slowly revealing the lab and offices beyond, my in-house team already busily at work cataloguing the evidence uncovered from the crime scene, while Brandon and Whitlock were already beginning examining the evidence placed into the system.

On the elevated platform, the two bodies were already situated on the exam tables, one long body bag to the left and a child sized one with a tiny lump inside to the right. I swallowed deeply and looked away as I led Carlisle to the room that had once been his office but had transformed quite significantly since his departure three months before.

I walked straight to the door, scanning my card through the reader and pushing the door open as I flicked on the lights. I gestured inside with a smile as Edward and Carlisle stepped past me into what we now affectionately called the War Room.

Carlisle's eyes widened in surprise as he saw how his once dignified and daintily decorated office had been transformed in his absence. I was always a visual person, and I found that the more a case was laid out before me, the quicker I was able to piece together the puzzle. After Carlisle left, I placed the ridiculous requisition that led to the current setup of my office, and was stunned when, after a short phone call from my boss asking why I was asking for such an outlandish purchase, the request was approved.

I moved across the room to settle into my chair behind my desk in front of the windows at the far end of the room, as Edward sat across from me with a crooked smile, plopping into one of the two black leather sofas situated so that it would allow the other walls to be seen as well as facilitate conversations within the team. Carlisle looked around the room in shock before plopping down on the couch across from Edward and looked my way for answers.

I chuckled, gesturing to the three walls covered in nothing but white boards from floor to ceiling, including both sides of the doorway into my office and even the two feet between the top of the door and the ceiling.

"I always told you that I thought we needed more white board space to plot out all of the information so we could see it as a whole. This was my first requisition once I was put in here and I was pleasantly surprised when it was granted. I know I work better this way and the rest of the team seems to as well. We organize every piece of information into sections on the boards and when we're done, we have a comprehensive timeline, evidence roster, and list of suspects, witnesses, victim bios, and so on. We've only used it twice since I took over, but it seems to be a really good system."

Carlisle looked over at me with a beaming smile that oozed a sort of fatherly pride. He took me under his wing straight out of the academy and has been like a father to me ever since. Thanks to this familiarity, I was also very close to his wife and was more than excited to get Edward on our team when he applied. Thanks to his work on the opposite end of the nation throughout my friendship with the Cullen's, I hadn't actually met him before he started working for me, but I sure felt like I had.

"I'm so pleased with how you have made this position your own, Bella. I knew you were the perfect person for this job, and Edward has done nothing but sing your praises ever since he started working for you."

My eyes instantly jumped toward Edward in surprise as his fell to the floor, his cheeks flushing pink. I smothered a smile and ignored the little flutter in my chest as I looked back to Carlisle with a smile.

"Well that is high praise from your son, Carlisle. He is the most brilliant profiler I have ever met. He certainly didn't fall far from the tree."

Carlisle chuckled as he glanced at Edward who blushed a shade deeper before grabbing the file from in front of him and flipping through the pages to examine his own notes.

Carlisle smirked his way before looking back at me with a wink. "So when do I see the magic start happening in here? I have a feeling it's going to be poetry in motion."

I smiled proudly. "With my team, it certainly is, but we don't really have a whole lot to go off of now. We need to get the crime scene photos processed and the evidence reviewed before we can really start making much progress here. I'll probably start by having your son over there, with the photographic memory, sketch out the crime scene on the board on the left wall. Then I'll add the numbered points where the evidence was gathered. As we were walking out, I looked back and noticed that the evidence flags formed a perfect flower design around the bodies. That was no mistake and I want to know exactly where every piece was laid out, because I'm guessing there's a pretty big clue waiting right there."

Carlisle nodded, shifting in his seat as he leaned back with his head resting against the back of the couch. "Mind telling me where you moved the coffee pot? I have a feeling I'm going to be needing a pot an hour to keep up with you kids. I'm getting too old for this."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes before reaching under my desk and grabbing a Red Bull out of the small fridge I had tucked there. I whistled before tossing it in his direction. "Start with that, old timer. That will give you the head start you need in order to only need a half pot an hour from here on out."

Carlisle chuckled, shaking his head as he examined the can curiously.

"Trust me, Dad," Edward said without looking up from the file in his hand. "If you want to keep up with her, you're going to need it."

Carlisle looked at his son smirking down at his papers before darting his eyes back at me, mirth dancing behind the sky blue irises. He took a deep breath before popping the top and taking a sip, pulling the can away with a cringe. He smacked his lips a few times while reading the nutritional information before taking another hesitant sip and looking back at me.

"So who are you calling in to take over for Rose?"

I sighed a deep breath, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I grumbled down at the desk top before me. "I called in Jane Paynor on the way here. She should be here in the next hour or so."

I didn't look up, but I could hear Carlisle's attempts to stifle his chuckling as he took another sip of the overly sweet liquid I had given him to help him stay awake. Carlisle knew better than anyone the less than ideal history I had with 'Jane the Pain.'


	3. Chapter 3

_**A**_**uthor's Note: Thanks as always to my beta AgoodWitch for getting this back out between working her hiney off to write her own stories. She's awesome, and as her beta, I have to tell you that her stories will make the delay so worth it! I don't feel like babbling, but just know the next chapter for this story is done and will post in the near future as well. TTYL!**

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**Chapter 3**

As time passed in a blur of phone calls for me, Carlisle grimaced through his Red Bull while Edward updated him on everything he had observed. My attentions were divided as I found myself listening closer to Edward than the parade of big wigs demanding answers that we were nowhere near ready to give. One of the worst things about our job is that most people don't realize how much time it takes to sort through evidence and draw conclusions. Just because the writers of the top TV shows in the country manage to resolve the case in an hour does not mean it works that way in real life. Some cases take a handful of hours while others take weeks and weeks.

Once the line finally went silent, I glanced at the clock with a frown. Two and a half hours had passed, and Jane had yet to check in, even though I requested she arrive immediately and come to the War Room to be briefed. Carlisle glanced toward me before his eyes darted to his watch and then back up to me. His lips twitched slightly as his eyes narrowed, standing to follow me as I jumped up and rushed to the door.

I opened it to see Jane suited up and already beginning to examine the bodies.

"Wait, Jane! Not yet!" I yelled, jogging quickly to the stairs that led to the platform where the autopsies would be performed. I quickly slid my badge to deactivate the security system before rushing to her level.

Jane looked at me with a bored roll of her eyes. "I've come to work. I'm a highly sought after forensic examiner. I do not need a kindergarten level talk by a new leader high on the power of a new post before I begin my examination. Now scurry off to look at fact sheets and let me begin my work."

She reached forward with her scalpel as my hand shot out to stop her from making her first incision. "Jane, there are things you need to know about this case. Things you need to be particularly vigilant in documenting. I do not like your attitude or your disregard of my authority in this case. Now I expect you to put down that scalpel and come to be briefed this very instant."

Jane's ice blue eyes turned arctic as she glared at me. "And what do you plan to do about it? You were a poor excuse for an agent when I met you and you still are. I am contracted and thus do not answer to you, Isabella. You can either let me do what I'm here to do, or I'll just leave."

I felt the fire flash in my eyes, my nostrils flaring in my struggle to retain self-control. I nodded slowly before reaching out to take the scalpel from her palm and laying it on the tray before her and dropping her hand. "Then be my guest, Jane. I cannot have people on my team who do not respect me or the way this division is run. If you do not have the capacity to be professional, even when teamed with someone you dislike, then you have no business being on this highly important case, under intense scrutiny by the director himself. I do not look forward to explaining to him why we will be further delayed by your absence as we wait for Dr. Saroyan from the Smithsonian to come back from her vacation, but I will do what needs to be done to make sure this case is treated with the utmost care and due diligence."

Jane's eyes widened as I undeniably informed her that not only is this the most important case she has ever worked on, but that I would be more than willing to feed her to the dogs. I watched as her tongue grazed over her teeth behind her closed lips before she finally stripped her gloves and gown and stalked off the platform and in the direction of the War Room.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before following her, trying to reign in every reaction boiling within me. As I crossed Carlisle, he beamed at me, winking as I caught his eye, and resting a hand on my shoulder. Edward chuckled quietly, shaking his head as he fell into line behind Carlisle and I as we strode back to my office.

When I walked in, Jane was sitting on one of the couches, turning her hand to admire the large diamond on her finger with a smug smile. I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth before crossing to my seat behind the desk, Carlisle and Edward sitting across from her, both taking in her actions with annoyance.

"Before you begin, I was asked by Michael to send you his best wishes. He says he misses working with you, but our life in suburbs makes a regular commute quite difficult. He's working at a medical testing lab near our house in White Ridge. I told you we built a house, didn't I? Yes, we started construction just before the wedding and moved in about a year or so ago. Beautiful panoramic views and we even included a recording studio in the basement for Michael's little garage band."

I bit my cheek and stifled my emotions as I listened to a girl I once thought was my friend gloat about her life with my former live in boyfriend. Mike and I met in college and were living together about a year later. I thought we had an idyllic life. We both got hired around the same time, me working with Jane in Carlisle's division, while Mike worked a few doors down in another division. I should have noticed something was going on, but I trusted Mike, completely. Six months later, Mike moved out and moved in with my "friend" Jane who flipped a switch that very same day and became the biggest bitch I had ever met. It was then I discovered her entire friendship was just an act to get close with Mike, and it worked, flawlessly. She came from money and before I knew it, they were engaged, building a house in the burbs, and Mike suddenly had a high paying job near where they lived, and as far away from me as possible without uprooting her own career.

I glanced at an angry Carlisle and a confused Edward as Jane droned on another few minutes before she finally finished. I took a drink of coffee before leaning back in my seat with a mask of indifference.

"That's all very nice, Jane. Now if you're done attempting to belittle me with you pathetic excuse for a marital situation, I would very much like to brief you on this murder that appears to be linked by theKing Serial Murders so that you can get back to your job and get us some answers."

Jane's eyes grew wide as she swallowed hard past the lump that appeared to have formed in her throat at the mention of the Serial Murderer and the links in the case that point to his deeds. Her face blanched as I explained what was found etched into the girl's back, a place she had not seen since the corpse had been positioned on the table already by the time she arrived. I asked Edward to fill in any blanks he could and by the time he was done, Jane's professionalism had finally made an appearance.

She looked intently at Carlisle as she spoke, explaining she would do her best. Carlisle just frowned before leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

"I am here as a consultant, like you, your oaths should be directed toward the woman behind the desk who is in charge of this operation now, and doing a damn fine job of it as well, from what I have seen. In my mind, Agent Swan has been considerably lenient with your displays here today, but I assure you that if I see you put even one toe out of line the rest of this case, I will be calling my good friend, Director Arogani. I will inform him that your services are not as impeccable as they once were, with or without the sanction of Agent Swan, and see that you are no longer on the FBI's list of professional consultants. Are we clear Dr. Paynor?"

Jane's eyes grew as wide as saucers before she nodded and glanced at me. "I'll get to work right away, Agent Swan."

With that, she disappeared out the door and went straight to work, adding extra cameras and two assistants to help her be as detailed as possible in her assessments. As soon as she was gone, I groaned, letting my head drop to my hand and massaging my temples gently. I could hear Edward question Carlisle as Carlisle hushed him and explained it was private. I made a note of informing Edward since everyone else in the office already knew the full story later, after my pounding headache went away.

The pain wasn't so much about Mike. The second he pulled that whole mess, I knew I was better off without him. The problem I had was that I never did well with bullies in school and now I was going to have to be in direct charge of one of the biggest bullies I had ever met. The thought was not a pleasant one. I had hoped I'd never have to deal with that woman again, and with the entry of Rosalie who was a better examiner and a better all around person, I didn't have to, until now.

Edward and Carlisle left the room, with excuses of work to do in other areas and wanting to check on Alice and Jasper, but I knew the real reason was to give me some space. They weren't gone long when a knock came at the door.

I called for the petitioner to come in, only to be surprised to see the face of Jacob Black pop through the opening, a concerned expression on his face. I shot him a weak smile and told him to come in before pushing back from the desk and moving across the room to meet him. The second he reached me, he enveloped me in his arms and buried his nose in my neck. I sighed and melted into his warm comforting embrace.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on Rose's detail."

The warm rumble of his voice through the wall of his chest made me smile. "I don't go on until six, so I thought I'd better drop in when I found out Jane was here. How are you holding up?"

I sighed, resting my forehead against his sternum. "Fine, I guess. She's already been up to her usual tricks. I had to threaten to tattle tell in order to get her to come get briefed as to the seriousness of the case, and then Carlisle had to set her straight too. I'm already exhausted and this has only just begun."

His warm fingers slid under my chin, lifting my face up to his. He pressed a soft kiss on my lips before repeating them on my cheeks, eyes and forehead. "Don't let her get to you, Bells. You're worth ten Jane Paynor's."

I sigh, not really feeling it, but not willing to argue either. Jake gazed down at me with is warm black stare. In the days following Mike's departure, Jake held me up. He was my best friend. Then, when my heart started to mend a bit, he became my friends with benefits, then my sort of boyfriend, and then back to my best friend ever with wonderful benefits when we realized while we loved each other, neither of us were IN love with each other. We were human though, and there were times when you just need that human contact with someone you trust. If you don't have a romantically special person in your life, then why not rely on your best friend?

Jake continued to comfort me, helping the stress recede, until the door to my office opened after a brief knock, Emmett followed by Carlisle and Edward rushing in soon after. Jake and I broke apart, but not before everyone that entered saw we were in an intimate embrace. I felt my face heat, unable to miss the look of hurt in Edward's eyes, which confused me a bit, before I thanked Jake and told him I would see him later.

I took my seat, to find Emmett's normally happy mood completely gone, an angry gorilla like being taking his place.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Thanks as always to my beta AgoodWITCH and my WC girls for encouraging me! You guys are awesome!**

**Now in the way of other good news…some of you may have heard, but I won the Young Adult division of the TWCS Original Fiction Contest. What most of you do not know, however, is that I have been in the process of getting the manuscript done to begin my first round of editing in four weeks. If all goes according to plan, I will be an officially published author by early March! Thank you for your patience as I've worked to finish laying down my story, which I have decided now, will be a series. The first book will be Children of Creation: Convergence and I've already been approached about getting the sequel done by the end of next year. At any rate, this has been major things going on for me…awesome, but very stressful. Thanks for your patience while I was wrapping up CofC and I ask once more for patience as I begin to do some cleaning up in the next few weeks before going into hard editing mid November. I have a feeling my fanfics will be silent or close to it during that time. Until then, I'll do my best to update as frequently as I can. Thank you all so much for all of your support. You readers really do keep me coming back again and again! So thank you!**

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**Chapter 4**

"This makes absolutely no fucking sense!" Emmett stalked up slamming a file on my desk. I frowned up at him, as much in curiosity at what had him so upset.

"The tests were run on the infant's DNA and checked against CODIS, and he is a genetic match for Royce King, but there's no fucking way. King has been in solitary the majority of his stay in the pen since his conviction thirteen months ago. I double checked the prison visit records, and he has had no visitors, much less conjugal visits in order to impregnate this young girl within the last thirty to forty five weeks. It's in-fucking-possible, yet the DNA tests are conclusive. It came back as a 98.99% match for paternity. How the fuck?"

I rubbed my temples feeling the building weight of my frustrations. The evidence was incontrovertible. Royce King was responsible for the string of murders, which all connected back to our Rosalie, his first rape victim. We had an airtight case, mostly based on DNA evidence. If he chose to appeal now, the new evidence coming in, that seemed to suggest the impossible, would inspire his jackass group of high dollar lawyers to jump on it like a pack of rabid dogs on a fresh T-bone steak. The worst part is that it could potentially seed just enough reasonable doubt to get him off, which would be an absolute nightmare.

"All I can think is that possibly King donated his sperm. Check with area sperm banks. He most likely used an alias, so be sure to send photographs for them to look at."

Emmett nodded, looking frustrated and not entirely convinced. Honestly, neither was I. Even if she was some random female who happened to end up with the convicted criminal's sperm sample; that certainly didn't explain why she was kidnapped and killed. Not only that, sperm bank records are kept under lock and key, so how would a copycat know who she was and what she carried. It would help if we could get an ID on the female, but whoever dumped her body was smart as hell. Her fingerprints had been removed, her teeth had been pulled, and her face had been beaten enough times that her bones had healed at odd angles even making facial recognition software stumble. Our only hope was for us to find a top of the line facial reconstruction expert to help us fill in the gaps.

Normally, we would all look to the Smithsonian. Dr. Brennan and her team had helped us on countless occasions, but we had already tried there, and Brenan's entire team was currently dispersed across the globe, taking an extended hiatus, with the exception of Dr. Saroyan who was on a short vacation in California. Thus, we were forced to go with the second best, in which case we expected a two day wait for the team to arrive, then even more time for them to examine the remains, and reconstruct facial representation to help Identify the girl since her DNA did not bring up a match in CODIS. Until then, the poor girl would remain nameless.

Emmett was getting up to leave when a frantic looking Jasper and Alice came flying in, tossing more folders in my lap.

"This is impossible! No Way!"

I rolled my eyes. "Appears this is the day for impossibilities…what did you find?"

Alice was pacing like a madwoman as Jasper leaned on my desk. "The physical evidence…the hairs, the skin under the nails, the semen found on the victim, it ALL matches Royce King. Impossible, right? He's in solitary right now and has been for more than a month. It's not fucking possible!"

I blinked in shock as Emmett's face matched mine from where he sat on the couch. Carlisle and Edward also appeared equally as dumbfounded. It didn't make any sense at all. They were both right. It was impossible.

I shook my head, my mind running a million miles a minute. "Whitlock, double check the samples, also look for signs of degradation that might point to them being older samples that were planted by a copycat. Brandon, you double check Whitlock's findings, and while he's running the first batch, I want you on the fiber samples and trying to rush that ID. McCarty, I want you and Cullen to bring in all of the prison employees with any contact with King. I'm talking guards, maintenance, cooks, laundry workers, anybody that came within ten feet of anything to do with King needs to be interviewed. There's a possibility he has some sort of a smuggler, except in his case, the goods may be going out instead of coming in. Before you leave, place a second guard on Hale. King has always been obsessed with her, if he's pulling strings on the outside, then she might be a target. I want her under 24 hour guard with backup. Carlisle will stay here with me to keep an eye on Dr. Paynor's findings and make a few calls to his contacts in the King case. We need to brief them in case this thing hits the fan."

Emmett nodded, looking grateful for my protection detail assignment for Rose. Not only would I function better knowing she was protected, but that would go double for Emmett. The room quickly emptied of bodies, save for Carlisle who stared at the files on my desk in bewilderment.

"How is this even possible, Bella? I mean…" He shook his head, the strain of everything written in every line of his face. Carlisle always looked so young for his age, but in that moment, he looked every bit of his sixty-one years.

I sighed, yanking the folders off the end of my desk and stacking them in front of me to review once more. "I know, Carlisle, I know. Let's just do our best to figure this out. There has to be a rational explanation."

Carlisle nodded, picking up his file to flip through it once more before excusing himself to go check on Jane and get an update.

Once the room was clear and I was alone, the full weight of this case hit me like a ton of bricks. I had long ago gotten over the need to cry over my job, built the necessary tough outter skin, and had refused to let the cases that I've dealt with affect me so profoundly, but this…this was just too much.

I leaned my elbow on the desk, gripping the bridge of my nose and squeezed, getting angry that my vision kept growing more and more blurry as I looked over the reports, one after another, after another. In the right set of hands, these few sheets of paper would end up spelling an almost certain appeal, with a high likelihood of repealing his life sentence. The thought alone, knowing all I knew about what he had personally done to Rosalie, not to mention the other girls that we were so certain he had abused and murdered, brought a sob bubbling up in my chest. The burden lay on my shoulders to find the answers. In the end, the team supported me, but I was where the buck stopped. If he went free, it would be my failure and my failure alone. I couldn't let my failings allow that man to wander the streets once more and destroy more innocent girls. The pressure was nearly unbearable.

After a good cry followed by an ice cold soda from the fridge under my desk, I dried my eyes, picked up the folders, and moved across the room to climb the step ladder in front of the specimen result board and began jotting down the results and DNA match ups from the investigation. Already the pieces were starting to come together in a troubling manner.

Once I was done with the information, I stood staring at the notes, my brain working overtime, searching for a possible explanation and finding none. There had to be a reasonable explanation, but whatever it was, it was not readily apparent.

Over the next few hours, bits of information began to trickle in. Carlisle came back in to update me on Jane's results. More or less, she had only confirmed that the girl had given birth to the infant via a crude cesarean section. In addition the girl's body had been completely drained of blood, thus complicating her ability to pinpoint a time of death since the lack of blood caused the liver to grow cold much more quickly than in a typical corpse. Jane had commented that the girl showed signs of malnutrition, and had contusions and lesions on her body that seemed to indicate she had been tied somewhere and forced to spend long, long periods of time in a sitting or lying position.

Due to the malnutrition of the mother, it was difficult to tell the gestational age of the equally emaciated baby, but Jane suspected he was not full term, his lungs showing signs of immaturity that could be a result of lack of nutrition, but more likely due to prematurity. Considering the physical state of the mother, Jane suggested that the mother's body would have been incapable of reaching full term and most likely went into early labor, although there was no physical proof of her theory.

Jasper and Alice were still slowly repeating their tests to confirm and were only half way through the samples, but thus far, their results had been consistent in reaffirming their first round of testing. In addition, Jasper had found no signs of degradation of the samples. They appeared to be recent.

My chest ached as I began making more notes on the white board, word after word linking these two deaths even more closely to the impossible suspect, Royce King. I wanted so badly to wake up, for this to be a twisted dream worked up by my overworked psyche, but it was real and there was no waking up from this nightmare.

Dawn rose, flooding my office with light as calls began coming in again. Rose called to see what was happening, knowing full well I could not reveal any facts in the case to her, but insisting on trying to coerce them out of me anyway. The director called twice, demanding answers that I still did not have.

Emmett and Edward called to inform me that they had the list of interviewees in hand and were making arrangements to have them scheduled to come to the floor below the lab where the two way mirrors and stark interview rooms waited for the endless procession of suspected conspirators. I would be spending the rest of this new day observing interviews between phone calls, and in some cases questioning some of the workers myself.

Monotony lay ahead for all of us, but it was just one more part of the job, and with any luck we would find some answers somewhere in the stack of faceless employees and hopefully a link that would shed some light on how in the hell this was even remotely possible.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for this update. I actually have two, but trust me when I tell you that you probably don't want me to post it when I am in the middle of book editing and can more or less guarantee at least three weeks before I can write more to get past it. Normally I wouldn't hold back (you know my lack of self control when it comes to posting, hee,hee), but it's a major cliffhanger that would be cruel to leave you waiting so long to read what follows. I might be wrong and you couldn't care either way. I'm just going by how I feel about major cliffies that take weeks upon weeks to update afterward. Thus, I'll leave you for the time being with this far lighter ending chapter, and give you the drama when I'm able to write more again.**_

_**Thanks to my beta AgoodWITCH for her work on this. I heart her hard; just like I do all of you who take the time to read. Without you guys, I'd more or less be wasting my time here. LOL. So thanks for using some of your precious time to read my stories. See you all around, and hopefully I'll be able to post regularly again in a few weeks time!**_

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Chapter 5

The interviews stretched on for two days. By the end of the first, Carlisle insisted I go home for some rest. Instead, I compromised by showering in the women's locker room four floors below us and then taking some time to nap on one of the couches in the war room. Carlisle protested, but in the end, I won the battle.

Five hours later, I was dressed again in a fresh suit Alice had stopped in to pick up for me on her way back to the office after an overnight at home. I returned to the observation room, watching in fascination as Edward interviewed yet another staff member, the answers always the same, but yet, in each and every one, he managed to pull out something that spoke directly of their character. He had a phenomenal talent for psychoanalysis, and he utilized it to make sure he left no stone unturned.

Getting tired of sitting back and just watching, I decided to take the reins and give Edward a break once the guards were pulled in. We were relatively certain, knowing the Volturi brothers, that the guards would be squeaky clean, but even the slightest link in the chain could be through one of them.

One after another, I kept hitting the same brick wall as Edward. There were no breaches we could find and I was growing more apprehensive with each passing hour. Finally, I reached the last of the guards, smiling at the small young lady who stood out amongst the rest of the bulky guards.

"Thank you for coming, Miss Sartin. I'm Agent Swan, and I just need to ask you a few questions." I gestured to the chair across from me, which she slid into casually and reached to shake my hand.

"Please, call me Chelsea. I'd love to help if I had any idea why I am even here."

I nodded. "We have reason to believe that there is a copycat on the loose emulating Royce King. We have reason to believe that he may be interacting with this copycat, possibly even smuggling items and information back and forth with him, and we are researching all connected in any way with King to ferret out the source."

Chelsea's eyes grew wide as she sucked in a slow breath, her brows furrowing in concentration. I smiled apologetically before continuing.

"You are the guard in charge of screening correspondence, correct?"

She nodded slowly, her lips pulling into a thin line as she studied her fingers, apparently lost in thought.

"Can you please tell me what kind of mail and packages you have seen coming and going for King?"

She sighed, twiddling her thumbs and chewing on her lips. "He doesn't get much mail at all, and I have yet to see him send any. The only correspondence he receives is from his mission outreach pen pal."

My ears perked at this one very small lead. "Mission outreach pen pal? May I ask what you remember about them?"

She nodded. "If you want the name and address, we keep a list on file of all individuals whom communicate with our inmates. I've never read anything that seemed amiss in them though. The letters come from a man who lives in Baltimore. The return address has the last name Castor, no first, and he signs all of his letters with the initials J.C. He was paired with Inmate King through a congregation known as Blessed Crown of Thorns Free Church, apparently based out of Baltimore."

I scribbled on my note pad as she spoke, feeling in my bones that this was our big break. I lifted my head as she paused. "I am going to request my coworkers gain access to the database to gain the rest of the information regarding this pen pal. Could you possibly tell me any more about the nature of their correspondence? What does this JC say to Inmate King?"

She shook her head, her brow furrowing. "Nothing that really sticks in my mind, he usually quotes a lot of bible verses and talks about justice for the slighted and forgiveness for those that walk in the light. He also talked a lot about his wife who was pregnant with their firstborn. His last letter came just yesterday. It said that the little boy was born early due to complications, and that mother and son were both resting peacefully, and had already been consecrated. I assumed that meant that the baby had already been baptized."

My heart was pounding as she continued speaking, my instincts as both an investigator and psychological profiler were screaming. This was it. This was our lead.

"Did JC mention anything about his wife's name?"

She narrowed her eyes in thought before they lit with recognition. "Bree, JC referred to her as Bree."

About this time, Carlisle came in with a file. He nodded solemnly at the young girl before me as he sat the file in front of me and then left. I opened it to read his hurriedly scrawled note. "The database brought up the address, which is a post office box in Baltimore. There is no church by the name she mentioned. Missing Person's had a hit for a Bree Winchester, gone missing at the age of nineteen from the University of Boston campus approximately ten months ago. She would have just turned twenty two months ago. Her height, hair color, and blood type do match up with our victim, although until the team finishes the facial reconstruction, we won't know for sure. It is about halfway completed. Have ordered a check of King's cell for any copies of the correspondence, although I doubt we will find anything. This is the best lead we have so far. I doubt she can give you much more."

I closed the file and stood, stretching out my hand to Chelsea. "Thank you. You have been a huge help. If you think of anything else, anything at all, please call me at this number."

She shook my hand as I handed her a business card with my personal cell phone number written on the back.

"Also, if you get any new letters from this pen pal, please turn them over to us immediately."

She nodded deeply. "Absolutely."

I led her down the hall to the elevator, riding with her to the bottom floor to say goodbye one last time before returning to the War Room to add my notes to the white board and begin to brainstorm with my team. Everyone was prepared for me when I entered, most of my notes already added to the quickly growing lines of scribbles on the walls of white.

I fell into my seat behind my desk and scuffed my forehead with my palm, trying to force my brain to function more efficiently.

"Let's start with a fact review. Cullen, I'm extremely curious to hear your impressions of Miss Sartin."

Edward chewed his lip a moment before turning his deep green eyes on me. The intensity and pure intelligence there made my heart flutter a moment, a reaction I immediately shut down. We were in the middle of a murder investigation, possibly the most important one I'd ever had since it could lead to the fall of a serial case. I admonished myself internally before focusing on Edward's words.

"Miss Sartin seemed genuine. I think she is trustworthy. She also appeared genuinely concerned that she had missed the possible undercurrents of the correspondence between King and the Un Sub."

"So you are convinced that this JC is our Un Sub?"

He closed his eyes with a sigh and nodded. I could see his eyes darting behind his lids and smiled knowing he was hard at work in that photographic memory of his to confirm his assumption.

"In addition, I think there is a possibility that this Un Sub could be King's twin. The surname Castor could be a reference to the Gemini Constellation and the twin stars Castor and Pollux. In this case, this twin is most probably the submissive of the coupling, as indicated by his choice of Castor, the mortal twin in Greek Mythology, giving King the moniker of Pollux, the immortal. Furthermore, he probably reveres King in every way, possibly feeling that he owes him his life, since in the legend, Pollux gave up his immortality to save Castor and allowing them to be together, turning them into the constellation."

Emmett sat forward, a deep frown on his face. "But King was an only child. He had no brother."

"That we know of," I interrupted. "It would explain an awful lot, including the DNA results if they were somehow identical twins. McCarty, look further into King's background. Play close attention to anything that might indicate an adoption, either legal or illegal. If King really does have a twin, there must have been an adoption of some sort. Alternatively, see if you can find hospital records from the birth. Perhaps, the mother gave birth to two sons but only kept one. There could be many permutations, but it's imperative that we find out these answers as soon as possible and find this Un Sub."

Emmett nodded, dashing from the room to begin his research.

I looked to Carlisle. "Please go light a fire under the reconstruction team if you can. We need a positive ID."

He nodded and left, Alice and Jasper following them. Jasper explained as he left that he was going to take a closer look at the DNA samples. Identical twins have DNA so similar that they usually show up as positive match, but often express themselves differently in phenotype, such as finger prints and things of that nature. Thus being so, he wanted to look over all the evidence one last time with our new information filtering what he was seeing, hoping to find something he missed before.

Once the room cleared, Edward and I were left alone, staring at each other in the quiet of the room.

"You are one hell of a profiler, Edward. I am amazed every day by you."

He smiled, his eyes darkening noticeably. "I could say the same about you, Bella. You are amazing."

I felt the heat in my face as the butterflies began to tango in my belly again. I swallowed hard and sucked in a deep breath, the intake of oxygen making me downright dizzy. The exhausted feeling reminded me of how tired I was, which in turn reminded me that I had yet to see Edward rest at all.

"When was the last time you got some sleep, Edward?"

He smiled. "I don't require much sleep, Bella. I did, however, take a short nap while you rested last night. I will probably take another one in the next few hours. You look as though you might need another one as well."

I chuckled and shook my head. "Nah, we're too close now. I don't think I could sleep even if I tried."

Edward nodded before gesturing to the couch across from him. "How about if we both took a couch and just let our bodies have a break in the calm before the storm then? You're going to need your energy when Emmett returns. I have a sneaking suspicion we're heading back out to the field once he gets back."

I nodded in agreement before crossing the room to melt onto the couch, tossing my foot up on the arm rest and my right arm over my eyes. Edward stretched out on the other couch after flipping off the light and we both enjoyed the silence together. After a long moment, Edward spoke in whispers across the room.

"Bella, are you involved with Agent Black?"

I swallowed before answering in a whisper of my own. "Not anymore. We tried the relationship thing once and realize we were better off as friends."

I heard his sigh beside me before he took in another slow breath. "Bella?"

I waited a moment in the silence before replying. "Yeah?"

He cleared his throat and shifted, the leather of the couch squeaking under his body. "Would you be offended if I asked you to have dinner with me?"

The butterflies lurched in my stomach. "Offended? No. I wouldn't be offended."

He was silent again before finally turning with a squeak toward me, I turned my face toward him, seeing the outline of his features in the dim light shining through the office windows.

"I…I find myself drawn to you. I've resisted for some time now, but I'm finding that more impossible with each passing day. When this is all over, would you do me the honor of letting me take you out to a nice restaurant for the evening?"

I smiled, my heart pounding in my chest as I sucked in a breath. "That sounds wonderful, Edward. I would love that."

The smile that spread across his face nearly crushed my pounding heart. I saw what looked like a tiny fist pump in the shadows before he rolled back to his back and rested his arm across his eyes as I had done earlier, but his wide smile never disappeared from his lips.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: We're Baaaack, although it still may be longer than I like breaks between chs since I need to be writing the sequel to Convergence which is due to my editor by mid-May. I think I'll still be able to work on this on the side though to break up the monotony. I've actually had this done since October, but if I left you with the cliffie in this chapter for the last couple of months, you'd have murdered ME! **

**I'm going to do a quick recap before we get going, but before we do that, I want to send a big shoutout to my beta AgoodWITCH.**

**Recap: Agent Bella Swan is the new head of an FBI task force which combines forensic specialists and profilers that work together to find their 'unknown subject.' Three days ago they were called out to work a case of an unidentified female found defiled and naked in a rural area outside of the city. Under her was the corpse of a newborn baby and upon her back was inscribed a message to the team, claiming that she had been murdered by 'The King' a serial killer who had been behind bars for over a year. Upon leaving, Bella noticed that the crime scene flags that marked where evidence was found created a rose-like pattern. Lead pathologist on the team, Rosalie Hale, was the King's first victim and the only one to ever escape him. She was relieved from the case to avoid the possibility of a mistrial and sent home under federal guard just to be safe.**

**As the evidence was reviewed and processed, the web seemed to get more and more complex when DNA testing revealed that the fetus was a genetic match for Royce King, who had spent the majority of his year of incarceration in solitary confinement. The prison staff was questioned closely and they found no links to King, but one employee gave them the break they needed. King was receiving letters from a man known as JC and James Castor through a prison outreach program that it was eventually discovered was coming through a nonexistent church group. Edward, savant profiler, managed to form the theory that J.C. looked up to King, and could even be a twin, which would explain the DNA conundrum. The team broke to investigate while Edward and Bella waited for updates in her office and attempted to get a little sleep. Before they fell asleep, Edward asked Bella on a date after the case was settled and Bella accepted… And now you're caught up. :)**

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Chapter 6

I must have drifted off at some point, but not before the panic started to set in about accepting a date with Edward. I told myself after what happened with Mike and then Jake that I was going to stay completely professional from that point on, especially now that I was the boss. Yeah, that lasted all of three months until Edward Cullen waltzed in and hatched a whole fleet of butterflies in my stomach, apparently psychotropic ones since I seemed to lose all sense of reality when they took flight in his presence.

I had castigated myself for a full hour before darkness claimed me, the whole time Edward continued to smile across from me while I plotted for a way to let him down easy. I'm not sure how long I slept, but I did know I was greeted by a rude awakening when Carlisle flew in all wide eyed and yelling. It took me a few seconds to process what he was telling me, but the second his words sunk in, my blood froze rock solid in my veins…Rosalie's on duty guards were killed, throats slit and left to bleed to death, and Rosalie was nowhere to be found.

I jumped from the couch in a panic, feeling lost and not knowing what to do. This was the last thing I suspected would happen. I expected her to be a target, but that was why she had two federally trained agents on her at all times, and even then, this asshole had gotten to her…our Rosalie. My eyes flew wide as I sprinted to the white board looking at the diagram of the first victim, the rose design outlined in red flags screaming in front of my eyes like a neon sign. I had suspected Rose was a possible target, but how did I not see she was the primary target all along? There's no such thing as a coincidence with The King. I knew that.

Chaos was building behind me as I stared at the depiction in horror. It was my fault; my shortcoming…Rose was in the hands of that sadistic psychopath because of me. I had utterly and completely failed her.

I didn't even realize I was speaking out loud until I felt Edward's hands on my shoulders. "You haven't failed her yet. None of us saw this, Bella. You can't blame yourself for missing it, but if you get lost in your own self flagellation and don't get her out, then, and only then, will you have failed her."

I swallowed hard, glancing back at him through my teary eyes and nodding my head in agreement. Then I realized that someone very important didn't know yet. I turned to Carlisle in a panic.

"Emmett!" His eyes bulged before he took off out the door in search of our investigator. Not only did someone need to be with him, but his information was even more crucial now. We needed that research in our hands yesterday.

I snapped into boss mode, ordering Jasper and Alice to hurry the reconstruction team, so we had our positive ID, in hopes it might help us find another link to this Unsub. At this point, we were fighting an even more fierce battle against the clock to find Rosalie. The fixation King had with Rosalie would no doubt be duplicated in this copycat, just as all the other aspects of his MO had been. My only hope was that he would follow King's example and spare her life as King had. It was an irrational hope though, seeing as how it was later ascertained that losing his grasp on Rose was what led to King turning from simply raping and torturing to killing his subjects so they would never escape him as Rose had. In addition, there was no telling what atrocities would befall her in the time it would take to find her. It was imperative we find her as soon as humanly possible.

It was less than ten minutes later that Alice and Jasper stormed in with the head of the reconstruction team, who then revealed the face of Bree Winchester. The positive ID had been made and it was time to pursue her connections full force. From the time we learned of the possible link to her disappearance, we had one of the analysts begin looking into her life and acquaintances. From there, we would jump in feet first and hope to unearth an immediate link to the unsub from her life and movements.

I made the appropriate calls, taking the responsibilities upon my own shoulders to inform Director Arogani of our failure to protect Rosalie, as well as the positive ID on our first victim. He was livid that we had missed the obvious sign earlier, and gave me an earful before hanging up on me. I knew I would suffer a review later at the very least for my fuck up.

Just as I hung up the phone, Emmett came in looking frantic as he handed over his research. I skimmed the contents before slamming the file on my desk in a fury. "How in the hell did we miss this the first time around?"

Emmett and Carlisle both shook their heads in bewilderment, still reeling from the shock as Edward, Jasper, and Alice looked on in confusion. I huffed before turning to them to explain, holding up the folder.

"According to this, King had a twin brother who suffered some sort of trauma during child birth. Believing that he would be permanently disabled, the wealthy, snobbish King family gave him away to the state, throwing a hefty amount of cash at them to pay for his care. The boy grew up in a children's hospital where he had no visitors and no permanent role models or loved ones in his life. Ultimately, he was released into the system when he was five, only suffering from some physical malformations, but no other major disabilities. In fact, his IQ was off the charts. He floated from foster home to foster home under the name of James Caulfield until he turned eighteen and seemed to just disappear off the face of the earth."

Alice and Jasper looked in shock while Edward's eyes looked shrewd as he processed the new information, melding it with his current known data about the unsub to see if the profiles aligned. After a few moments, he looked up at me with a resigned expression. It fit. It All fit. The DNA, the initials, the hero worship, everything. We had a face to go with the unsub, now we needed a current alias and location.

Emmett hung the picture on the white board with trembling hands. The picture was about ten years old, the last taken of James Caulfield before he disappeared from the DCFS system. I felt myself shudder slightly at the image, the narrowed eyes full of anger and intelligence, the dirty blonde hair, so similar to King's and yet, not quite the same.

Upon first glance, one would not notice the resemblance between the twin brothers, but upon further inspection, the similarity in the lips, the thin, evil smile was identical. The shape of Caulfield's eyes and the way he looked out of them were eerily similar to that of his brother.

The only real difference between them was a startling one, making them appear completely different, when under other circumstances they would have been identical mirror images of one another. Where Royce King had a long, straight, noble looking nose, James Caulfield was cursed with a bumpy, stubbed alternative, with large nostrils that made that part of his face look nearly skeletal. In addition, a large bump protruding from his forehead, further modified his features to remove all immediate notice of resemblance between the pair.

There was one benefit of having this picture to work with. Unless he had gotten extensive plastic surgery, which we could not rule out if he had any substantial contact with his extremely wealthy twin after his disappearance from the system, he would not be too incredibly difficult to find in a crowd.

In the end, I had to cling to that hope, because so far, we still had no idea where James Caulfield had taken our friend and loved one.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: Inspiration has been flowing like crazy this week. I've written up through Ch 10, but I'm going to spread out posting them so I have time to write more. If I posted them all before I could get more written and betaed you guys would string me up by my toes like Mussolini, trust me. You'll understand when you reach the end of Ch 10. I'm guessing my inspirational waterfall will be slowing for a bit…but I made some great progress while it was at its peak. **

**A huge thanks to AgoodWITCH for spending the majority of her day today betaing both these chapters and my MOB chapters. She's so win. Also a big thanks to my WC girls who have been teasing me about slowly killing them all week! I appreciate the feedback ladies!**

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Chapter 7

The squints scattered like roaches in all directions after the briefing, their assignments in hand. After some consideration, we broke up all the information we needed into many small packets and called in all the forensic techs the FBI had within a thirty minute radius of HQ. In addition, we had also pulled in a ton of agents to help scour Bree Winchester's life to see what we could find. With a few last minute instructions, I left the squints in Carlisle's more than capable hands before piling into a whole fleet of cars filled with agents to make our way to the Baltimore region, which was not only James Caulfield's base of operations, but also where Bree Winchester had been attending college before her abduction.

One of the other agents drove while Emmett sat in the front seat, gripping the dashboard as if he were trying to propel it forward by pushing. Meanwhile, Edward and I sat alone in the back seat, both of us searching for any information we could find on our computers as we traveled.

The longer it took to get there, the more my knee jumped in anxiety. I didn't even realize I was doing it until Edward reached a steady hand over to rest on it, giving it a comforting squeeze and leaving it resting there. It shouldn't have been as much assistance as it was as I stared at his long tapered fingers. I don't even remember making the conscious decision before my hand slid off the keyboard of my laptop to rest on top of his for a moment before I looked over at him. He flipped his hand under mine and squeezed it as he stared into my eyes and nodded. I mashed my lips together, trying to keep my emotions under control as I stared at him. Eventually I nodded back. He squeezed my hand one more time before releasing it hesitantly and replacing it upon his keyboard. I took a deep breath and did the same, resuming my search.

One hour and forty-five minutes later, we pulled onto the University of Baltimore campus and began spreading out, each set of agents seeking out specific information assigned to them by Edward and me. Meanwhile, Edward, Emmett, Sam, who had been off shift when Rose was taken, and I made our way toward the dormitory in which our victim had lived.

When we reached the doors, we first found our way to the Resident Hall Assistant in charge of the dorm, flashing our badges and explaining why we were there. The poor girl looked stricken when we informed her that Bree was dead, agreeing tearfully to lead us to her room. As we traversed, the Assistant told us that Bree's roommate Vicky was still living in the same room and could probably tell us far more than she could.

When we reached the fourth floor, we heard the music blaring long before we reached the door that had once been Bree Winchester's. The Assistant knocked politely twice before Emmett growled and pushed her aside, pounding loud enough to rouse the attention of the coeds living up and down the hall. Young heads poked out of nondescript brown doorways with wide, scared looking eyes. If it weren't for the severity of the situation, I would have chuckled, knowing that the intimidating size and strength of Emmett would most definitely make me uncomfortable if he were banging on one of my neighbor's doors so late at night.

Emmett banged two more times before a tall girl with kinky red hair opened the door wearing nothing more than a tank top and a pair of boyshorts. She popped her pink bubble gum loudly as she leaned against the frame with an unimpressed expression.

"What the fuck do you want, banging down the place? Where's the fucking fire?"

Emmett pushed his way past her looking at the disaster of a room before making his way over to the desk that had framed pictures of Bree and her family as I stepped forward to introduce us to the girl.

"I'm Agent Swan of the FBI. My colleagues and I are investigating the murder of Bree Winchester and would like to ask you a few questions."

The girl paled, her eyes flashing wide before she restored her mask of indifference and gestured for us to enter. Even after all that, she didn't bother to dress, despite the fact that her thin tank top left absolutely nothing to the imagination, including the fact that she was braless. She moved to her bed, plopping back in the corner and leaning back on her pillow, one knee up, the other down as she twirled her hair as if I was asking her about the weather instead of her roommate's murder.

I sat across from her on the chair at her desk to try to get on her level as Edward observed from behind me. "Could you state your full name please?"

She yawned and popped her gum again before mumbling a response. When I asked her to speak up, she rolled her eyes before stating, "Victoria Rae Kingsley." I paused, blinking at the likelihood before continuing to ask the bored-looking girl more questions. She finally got frustrated and sat up on the edge of the bed, leaning toward me with her elbows resting on her spread knees.

"Listen Lady, I knew Bree Winchester for all of a few weeks before she up and disappeared. I knew nothing about her, but they refused to move her shit. I'd be more than happy if you'd take her crap so I can officially have a single, but I have nothing to tell ya."

I frowned in confusion before looking back up at the girl. "Bree has been missing for almost a year. One school year ended and the next began, so why didn't you move rooms after she disappeared if they refused to move her belongings or at the very least move into a new room the next semester?"

She rolled her eyes as she popped her gum again. "Why should I move my shit? I stay on campus through the summer on a work program since I'm an international transfer student. For now I just ignore it, and now that she's kicked it, maybe they'll actually close the fucking case and get her shit out of here."

I found myself even more confused. This girl didn't have a foreign accent and seemed more New England than anything. Even her name was quite typical. "Where did you transfer in from, Victoria?"

She huffed and popped her gum again as she investigated her nails. "London."

"England?" I asked thoroughly confused.

She rolled her eyes and popped her gum again. "Do I sound English? London, Ontario, as in Canada?"

I nodded, finally making a little more sense of her, but still not understanding what she was doing in Baltimore. "So what made you decide to come all the way to Baltimore for school? Surely it would be cheaper to go to school in Canada, like maybe Toronto?"

She shrugged, cracking her gum again. "I got a full scholarship, who was I to argue."

She didn't seem like a rocket scientist, but maybe she had some sort of giftedness that wasn't readily obvious. I was definitely starting to get antsy as interviewing the girl wasn't getting us anywhere in finding Rose. I was about to question her some more when all of our phones beeped at once, a mass text. I flipped open my phone and took in a deep breath before turning back to the girl.

"We have no further questions at this time and have urgent business to attend, but please stay nearby, Miss Kingsley. We may have more questions for you."

She plopped back on her bed and rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Whatever, just be sure to close the door on your way out."

With one last glance behind as I closed the door after following the rest of the guys out, we made our way down to the small recreational room in the residence hall to conference in privacy. As we walked, I couldn't help but wonder more about the odd girl who had been Bree's roommate for a short stretch of time.

Edward used his phone to dial in before placing it on speakerphone and sitting it on the table between us. Two rings later, Carlisle answered.

"Dr. Paynor was able to find more trace particulates in the tissue of the victim's knees. As was mentioned before, it appeared the girl had been bound and forced to spend great amounts of time on her knees. Apparently, this had been an understatement as Dr. Paynor found the particulates under a layer of skin. Jasper and Alice have run analysis on the trace fibers and we got very lucky as there was only one company who used one particular fiber in the area for shag carpeting in the mid to late 1970's. The business appears to still be owned by the same family. Loman Family Floorings is located at 1660 East Lombard in Baltimore. I have dispatched agents to look into it and see if they have any records. Perhaps we can link one of the homes into which this was installed back to James Caulfield."

"That's good progress, Carlisle, is there any other leads?" I asked, hoping for something else to go on.

Carlisle sighed, "Not really, how about you?"

I sighed in response. "We located her dorm room and spoke with her roommate, but I keep feeling like there was something we were missing."

I glanced toward Edward who nodded before I continued. "Carlisle, can you please put someone onto investigating the background of Victoria Rae Kingsley, purportedly from London, Ontario? Get back to me as soon as you can with any information you receive."

Carlisle mumbled as he took a few notes before reading them back and saying he was on it. Once the line was dead, I turned to Edward with expectant eyes.

He grimaced. "There's more going on with the girl than meets the eye. She's a classic victim who hides behind her sexuality or perceived sexuality to deflect from the true issue. I deduced from the conversation that she does not have the IQ to have any sort of academic scholarship."

"Athletic?" I asked, trying to think of another option. Edward shook his head. "She did not have any of the markers of an athlete either in her gait or her expressions. In fact, she came off as not actually working toward any goal in particular."

I turned to a way too quiet Emmett. "Any impressions, Em?"

"She's a lying bitch and I'm fighting every muscle in my body not to go right back up there and beat the truth out of her." From the white knuckled grip that he had on the table, I believed him.

"Also, it looked like Bree had two older brothers or brotherly figures. There was a picture of them in a frame that said 'Brotherly Love.' It wasn't in her records, so if we can find them, we might find more information."

I nodded before grabbing out my laptop and beginning to type away. I hated sitting around, but until the other teams started reporting in and we got back the info on Miss Kingsley, it was what we had to do. I skimmed my screen until I saw two names pop up in her past history as step siblings…Dean and Sam Winchester…location unknown.

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_**Author's Note: This will be the extent of the Supernatural cameos. Everytime I saw Bree's name, I picture Dean and Sam and couldn't resist. ;) **_


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: So, good news for you lovely, patient readers. Last night I wrote the last regular chapter of ROTK. It was Ch 11, but I plan to do an EPOV outtake and an EPI before it's all done. I'm going to spread these out a bit over the next week or two for you and then there will probably be a lull in fanfic updates from me while I focus on writing Induction for a while. I'm only about 5k into it, and once I get closer with MOB and this, I think I'll be a little freer to rock out on it...or at least that's my hope. Things are going to keep getting more and more intense from here on out...just to warn you. If you haven't figured it out already, this story is definitely not wusspurv friendly. Hope you enjoy!**

**There is a bit of Italian that I used Google Translate to get. I also have been researching all of this stuff about Baltimore online. Hope it's not too far off…if so, blame google.**

**Big thanks to my beta AgoodWITCH and my WC ladies for their suggestions and great work!**

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**Chapter 8**

An hour later, we had more or less commandeered the room as our work area as agent teams streamed in and out of the room. I was pleased to see a single whiteboard in the room large enough for Edward and me to outline the info as it came in.

The family flooring store had records going back fifty years. The agents were still neck deep in the old records, searching for specific sales. They already had a thousand local homes with the carpeting. I sent in two more teams to back them up, skimming the more recent electronic records to cross reference any houses which had replaced the older carpeting so we could eliminate them from the list of possible locations.

Emmett was trying to find more information on Sam and Dean Winchester. They had spotty records at best for the first nineteen or so years of their lives and then a few years ago they both completely disappeared off the grid. When Bree first came up missing, investigators were leaning strongly toward the brothers being responsible, but there had been no proof in either direction to sway them.

The Winchester boys were a dead lead, which pissed Emmett off and brought out the pacing beast again. I felt so bad for Emmett, but his extreme investment was making it hard to justify keeping him on in Baltimore. The only thing that really stopped me from relieving him of duty was fearing that he might go rogue and chase Caulfield himself. I was afraid he might get himself killed, or worse, if I didn't keep him in check.

The background analysis on Victoria Rae Kingsley came back an hour later. I frowned as I looked it over, sliding it to Edward who took a double take at the records. He looked up at me with tight eyes…we were on the same page. Without a word, we both stood up and rushed out of the room, running to the stairs leading to the fourth floor. We had left a guard outside her door and two on perimeter duty while we worked in the activity room.

When we reached the fourth floor, the guard still stood sentry outside her door. He shrugged as we approached. "No sign of her our here, Agent Swan….just that awful thrash metal for the past hour."

I knocked on the door…no reply. I knocked harder. After the fourth time, I tried to knob to find the door unlocked. I stepped into the empty room, my stomach boiling as I glanced toward the open window. Nothing had been touched or appeared to be taken in the ransacked room, but there was one new sealed envelope left behind, "Agent Swan" written on the outside in that familiar script that had been left on Bree's body.

I grabbed gloves out of my pocket and donned them quickly before carefully opening the letter as Edward called for the agent outside to bring a bag before calling to send agents to check on the perimeter guards. Edward reached forward with the storage bag that materialized and allowed me to slip the envelope inside as I unfolded the white page that was within.

"Too little, too late, team. Not gonna find little Vicky again, she's with me now, for the time being at least. I suspect the ugly green monster will come out soon and then she'll have to be eliminated, but until then this should get fun. I'm disappointed Agent Swan. If you're reading this, then you didn't catch on to my pretty little plant as I had hoped you would. He told me that you were better than this. Guess you aren't the world's greatest after all. Too bad…I so wanted us to meet face to face. Better hurry if you want to find The Rose alive or else you'll have to find her buried with the orchids and other beautiful little flowers. Tick Tock, La Bella Donna, La sua stagione di crescita sta raggiungendo è fine."

I was shaking as I read his words, not knowing Italian to translate the last line, but knowing it was a threat to me. Edward picked it up and sucked in a breath before looking at me with worried eyes. "Not only is he saying Rose's 'growing season is reaching its end,' but I think he might be threatening you. We need to get back to the conference room. I want to look something over really quickly, but I think I'm seeing a pattern, and maybe a lead."

As we made our way back to the main floor, my knees feeling as instable as jello, we got a call about the perimeter guards, both found unconscious. A metal ladder leaned against the wall of the dorm leading to Victoria's window was the only other sign anyone had been there at all. Caulfield had been here, on campus, and helped her escape right under our noses. A chill went up my spine when I realized that we had found not only an equal to Royce in intelligence and cunning, but possibly even a superior. It also made me wonder if we didn't have it wrong all along…if King was the submissive in the relationship while Caulfield was the dominant.

I trembled as we entered the room, falling into my seat and staring blindly at the wall. Why was I failing left and right? What was I not seeing? I was missing something big right under my nose, and he was laughing at me and my mental block.

Edward rushed to his computer across the room, scanning the screen before speaking up. "It's a known pattern that King abducted women with a flower in their names. ROSEalie LILLIAN Hale, Felicia LILLIAN Ross, DAISY Lynn West, VIOLET Ann Rosings, HOLLY Denise Michaels, IRIS Sharee Rosenbloom, Bailey JASMINE Ellis, and IVY Grace Rossdale were his victims before you captured him. I just did a search for other flower names that have recently joined the missing person's list. Among them is Breanna ROSE Winchester, OLIVIA ROSE Ashton, and LAUREL ROSE Manning all taken from the Baltimore area since King's incarceration, and the other two before Bree. We may have more than one victim here. Can I see that note again?"

Emmett passed it with a shaking hand, his eyes darting to me and my heart fell as I saw the condemnation there. He was blaming me for missing this and I couldn't hardly blame him. I Blamed Me!

Edward read it over again with a hum before opening his computer to search again. "He makes specific mention of being buried with the Orchids along with the other beautiful flowers. Nobody with the name Orchid has disappeared, but Baltimore has a conservatory in Clifton Park known for its Orchid display. I suspect it might be a hint."

Emmett looked at me with wide eyes a second before I jumped up and ran for my phone, making calls to the teams telling them to narrow the search for places near Clifton Park. When the call was finished, I found myself running over to Edward to hug around his shoulders and kiss his cheek. It broke all semblances of professionalism but I really didn't care…I was just grateful that he had the distance to see what the rest of us could not. I knew I was too close to the case to be as beneficial as usual, but I was getting so frustrated with my mental blocks. All I could think of was Rose in Caulfield's hands, and it was clouding everything.

Edward blushed and smiled at me as Emmett and the others in the room pretended not to notice. I looked down at him with grateful eyes. "Thank you for being so amazing at your job. Thank you for staying objective when the rest of us can't."

He smiled sadly with a shrug. "I've only been with the team a few months and haven't had much interaction with Rosalie, so it's easier for me. Trust me; we're going to get this guy, especially since I noticed one more thing just now."

I cocked my head with a frown as he nibbled his lip and looked worried.

"He referred to you as La Bella Donna. In Italian, that means The Beautiful Woman, but Belladonna is also a flower also known as deadly nightshade. He has convoluted your name into a flower name as well, Bella. I believe you may also be a target now…either that or he has identified you as his biggest threat. Either way, I fear you are in more danger than we suspected."

I sucked in a breath as the trembling returned in the same moment that my phone began to ring. I picked it up and listened closely, my already cold blood freezing completely in my veins as my heart skipped several beats.

"Hello, Belladonna. The time has come for us to talk."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Two more chapters after this and then the Epi. I was going to do an EPOV but it kept falling flat, so I've decided to just give you a taste during the epi, when I finally get to write it. I've got a kid home sick from school today, so it's hard telling. I'm hauling them both to the MD tomorrow, because the boy who sits next to Big E's mom told me on FB that he has strep and had the same symptoms as my little guy…so I'm not going to take any chances.**

**A big thanks to AgoodWITCH who has been 'illing' on this story for the past few chapters. She's been super speedy with the beta duties this week. Also big thanks to my WC ladies for their support and feedback. Alright…now on with this phone call….**

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Chapter 9

"Hello, James," I replied, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible. All three guys in the room snapped their heads in my direction, eyes wide. I motioned for them to be silent as I tapped the button to go to speakerphone.

"Well at least you figured out that part, Nightshade. I was beginning to think my dear brother lied about you as an excuse for being captured."

I cleared my throat before continuing. "Well, I'm a little emotionally compromised, considering who you have taken from us. I think it's clouding my thinking."

He chuckled, "Oh, but you have loverboy to pick up the slack. He's quite good, I must say…not as pretty though."

I took a deep breath and tried to steady my voice as I added an extra sharpness in my reply. "What is it you want, James? We're a little busy trying to locate you."

He chuckled again. "Yes, yes, you're catching onto my clues expediently, but your time is running out, Nightshade. When dawn's light strikes the home of the orchids, the Rose shall wilt and wither. If anyone but you comes to her aid, they will die along with her. Only you, Belladonna, can save the precious Rose. You have a little less than six hours to find us. We'll be waiting with bells on."

I started to reply when my phone beeped indicating he had ended the call. My stomach boiled as I stared at the rectangular device before looking up at the men in the room, Edward looking at me with horror while Emmett, white knuckled the table and ground his teeth. The silence was broken when the teams from the flooring store arrived hauling in boxes of records. I stared at Edward who blinked at me in silence, all of the color now drained from his face.

"You can't go, Bella. It's not safe."

I swallowed before rasping, "I have to. Rose is dead if I don't. At least she'll have some kind of a chance if I go."

Edward began to shake his head jerkily. "You know as well as I do that if you go in there alone, you're not coming back. You're his new nexus. It was never Rose…Rose was King's obsession. Caulfield is in it for the thrill of the chase and the defeat of the most worthy opponent. That's you, Bella. He wants to conquer you."

I nodded shakily before standing up and moving to stare out the window. I licked my lips slowly, gazing out into the darkness before wiping a tear away. With one last breath, I turned toward my extended team. "I want all the concealed weapons you can find me. Emmett, I want you to see if you can get me that sample of Dragon Skin body armor. I want to be able to maneuver when I'm in there. Johnson, I want to be wired in an obvious and at least two more discrete ways. Make sure at least one is vid. Edward," I paused when I locked eyes with him, seeing the agony on his face, "Find them for me. I need you to do this for me. His last comment about waiting with bells on was probably another clue. Look for addresses or complexes having something to do with bells. Also, look for flowers and name or titles of monarchs, and assign someone to cross reference our suspected locations with former foster homes Caulfield stayed in after he was released from the hospital. This could be a place he spent some time in."

Edward nodded slowly before looking back down at his keyboard, but his strokes were noticeably slower than they had been before the newest revelations. I took a breath and lifted my phone from the table, dialing the one person I needed to talk to most. It only took one ring before Carlisle answered. Apparently he had already been apprised of the situation, as the first words out of his mouth were, "You can't do this, Bella."

I almost didn't recognize my own voice as I responded in a flat monotone. "I have no choice, Carlisle. I'm Rose's only chance."

"NO, Bella! You are not Rose's only chance. Let a strike team go in and get her. This isn't Silence of the Lambs and you aren't Jodie Foster. This is suicide, Bella. There's no honor in this."

"And I can't live the rest of my life knowing that I was too scared to face the demon and not even try. I'm doing this, Carlisle, with or without approval."

Carlisle sighed. "I'm calling Arogani and the rest of the big wigs and I am on my way there as of five minutes ago. You are not going in without any backup and I am going to be in your ear the entire time."

I smiled and let out a slow breath. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Carlisle."

The teams dove in head first, working away while I stared out the window and tried to wrap my mind about what I was about to do. Suddenly, the room got quiet and I saw the reflection of Edward moving toward me before I felt his heat behind me. It was like the world was moving in slow motion as his hand moved out to touch my arm at the time that his face lowered to my shoulder. He placed a soft kiss before sliding his hand down my arm to twine his fingers with mine.

"I just found you…I don't want to lose you," Edward whispered into my ear as I leaned into the warmth of his chest, no longer caring about professionalism. I needed this personal connection before I walked directly into hell. I took a deep breath before turning toward him, wrapping his arm around my waist as I twisted.

I rested my hand on his chest, feeling his heart hammering away under his sternum. "I don't want to either, but I meant what I said, if I don't try, I won't be able to live with myself."

He pulled me closer with his arm around my waist, his free hand moving up to grasp my hand on his chest, squeezing lightly. We stared at each other for one very long moment before he leaned in and softly brushed his lips across mine. I gasped as my heart jumped hard in my chest, threatening to beat right out of my ribs in response to his touch.

Our kiss deepened as we moved closer, my hand sliding up to wrap around his neck, as his slid up my arm to tangle in my hair. Without conscious thought, my lips parted and I took a small shared breath with him before they fell together again, this time my tongue peeking out to taste his lower lip. Edward hummed before reaching out to brush my tongue with his, causing my heart to clench with bittersweet joy. Our kiss did not break until the rattle of the door knob warned us we had company and we jumped apart, still staring as we struggled to catch our breath.

Through the door marched Carlisle, another small army of agents following him in with armloads of supplies. He took in Edward and my condition with a smirk before barking out orders at his entourage. Everything I had requested had been brought along with the new crew and more. I now had everything I needed to enter the lion's den…now I just needed to muster that last bit of courage.

Just as I was slipping on the last piece of Dragon Skin armor, an agent dashed in, laying something out on the table. "We missed it at first because we were looking for installations on a Bell or Belle Avenue. It wasn't until Uley was looking at the map that he realized that there were lots of installations on corners. We found this one on the corner of Ellerslie and Belle Terre Avenues, and it was also one of the homes Caulfield was placed in toward the end of his time in the system."

I picked up the picture and looked at the cute little blue three-story Victorian home with white trim, a chill running up my back. It was within relative close proximity to Clifton Park, had the right carpeting unless it had been replaced by another dealer in the years since it was first installed, and it had a connection with Caulfield. It looked too pretty to be the ninth circle of hell, but then again, King never looked like the devil incarnate either.

All was in place and we had two hours to go…I just prayed that I could find a way to get us both out alive.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author's Note: I was waiting until I at least finished the epi to post these. I can't guarantee it will post soon as my beta is on vacay, but I will as soon as I can. This is a killer cliffhanger, but I will be posting the next chapter tomorrow which will wrap up the main event. The epi is sort of the final wrap up. Hope you like it!**_

_**Big thanks to AgoodWITCH for her work on these and Have a great vacay doll. Also big thanks to my WC friends for their input!**_

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**Chapter 10**

An hour before the deadline, I carefully approached the steps that led from the street to the blue Victorian we had discovered in our search. All I could do was pray that we were right, or else Rose was doomed. Armed with eight concealed weapons in addition to the .45 in my hands, I had one traditional wire taped between my breasts, one video feed in a lapel pin that said FBI on my shirt, a GPS tracker in my shoe and in my bra, and another audio feed pinned to my underwear. I held onto the hope that Caulfield wouldn't find them all if I were searched and my team, who were less than a block away, could still keep tabs on me after I entered the house.

I knocked on the door when I reached it, only to have it open to find an unfurnished house. My stomach dropped in fear that we were wrong. I carefully moved around the first floor using the light from my flashlight to navigate, before checking the upstairs and then coming back down to find the door that led to the basement. I knew there was a basement because small rectangular windows lined the foundation of the house, not something done when there is just a crawl space beneath.

From my earpiece, I could her Carlisle's smooth, calm voice. "Talk to me, Bella. We have good feed, but I want to know how you're doing."

I swallowed, only realizing how hard I was breathing when it was interrupted by the quiet of the motion. "I'm okay, Carlisle. I noticed there was a basement, I'm trying to find the door that leads to it now."

I finally found the doorway in the kitchen. I groaned at the stale, musty scent that rose from the inky black below. Rickety wooden steps disappeared into the darkness beyond the small illumination my flashlight provided.

"I'm going down."

"Copy that," Carlisle replied.

I slowly descended into the dark, bare concrete basement walls constructed of cinderblock and nothing more. The thought occurred to me that I hadn't seen the shag carpeting and kicked myself, realizing that we must have had it all wrong.

I walked the room again before cursing into the earpiece. "Shit! There's nothing here, Carlisle. Damn it, we got it wrong. I'm coming out…split the crews up and start knocking doors of all the other residences who had the flooring. It's our last chance."

Carlisle's voice, crackled a bit as he responded, our signal being interrupted by something as I made my way back toward the stairs, tripping over something on my way.

"Actually, Bella, we just got a call that Rose was found alive at the Conservatory. Caulfield must have realized we were getting close and took off to play another day. I've sent two teams to go get her and document the scene. I'm heading out now. Edward is staying behind with Uley and Stephens to take you there too."

I nodded, looking down at what had tripped me, not able to make it out in the dark. "Copy…you go ahead. Tell them I'll be right there."

There was no reply. I bent down to examine what had tripped me, my heart pounding when I realized it was the edge of a trap door concealed under the large pieces of ceramic tile flooring. I leaned down closer and tried to grip the small ridge.

"Are you guys seeing this? I want to check it out."

Silence.

"Hello?"

Nothing.

"Edward?"

I stood up to go up the stairs and get the guys, but as I reached the bottom of the staircase, the door leading down slammed shut seconds before a cloth filled hand covered my nose and mouth. I thrashed and fought, but felt my body growing heavy seconds before the little bit of the light in the room disappeared and I no longer heard or felt anything.

I woke up in a bright room, a strange texture under my prone body. My heart froze mid beat when I opened my eyes to see a sea of tan shag carpeting under me. The smell of sweat and urine made me gag as I tried to move my hands to sit up, but they were tied behind me. I struggled to try to stand, but found myself bound too tightly; all I could do was sit on my knees.

I perched myself up and looked around the windowless room that was nothing but white cinder block walls and a sea of tan carpet. One door bisected the wall before me and in it stood a smirking James Caulfield, facial deformities replaced with smooth lines. He still didn't look like a replica of his brother, but it was now easy to tell that they were related.

I was shed of all my clothing except for my underwear. I thanked God for small favors and prayed that the team would find my signal soon. My hope only lasted a few seconds before I remembered the radio silence right before I was taken. Caulfield was blocking my signal. They had no clue where I was.

I coughed before finding a weak voice. "Where are we?"

He laughed, his cocky jubilation over his triumph radiating from him in waves. "Why, my house, my dear. I was so disappointed when you almost missed the trap door, but you didn't fail me in the end. You almost let the cat out of the bag, though, and that would have ruined the whole surprise."

I swallowed, taking a deep breath of the putrid air. "Rose?"

He scoffed as he moved across the room to adjust something on the far wall. "I do not see what enamored my brother so with her. I do have to admit that she was a fighter though…and quite intelligent, but not as intelligent as you, my Belladonna." He smiled as he ran a finger down my cheek. "You and I are going to have so much fun! Time for phase one…you have two hours to find a way out of your restraints. If you succeed, you get a reward. If you don't, you've failed me and I'll have to place you with the other lovely flowers…so don't fail me, Nightshade. Pleasant scurrying."

With that, he closed the door, the bright lights in the ceiling extinguishing soon after, dropping me into total darkness. I struggled to catch my breath, fighting that nagging sense of claustrophobia before self preservation kicked in. I had two hours and I needed to make the best of them!


	11. Chapter 11

_**Author's Note: This is it…the last regular chapter. In classic ACW style, we'll be skipping forward a good bit of time for the epi. Hope you like it.**_

_**Big thanks to AgoodWITCH who was always super fast with the returns on this one. Also a big thanks to my WC ladies for their support and feedback. Also, thank you to all of you who read and reviewed. This has been one of the least reviewed stories of mine in quite a while, but I loved writing it anyway. I'm not sure I'm really a dark and twisty writer, but I enjoyed giving it a go. Without further adieu, the final chapter…**_

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**Chapter 11**

It was quiet in the darkness...so quiet that all I could hear was my labored breathing and the clank of the chains that bound me. I struggled against my restraints, hoping for a weakness, knowing it would be nearly impossible to escape in my current position. If I could free my hands, then I'd have a much better chance.

I fought until my wrists were raw and finally gave up. Once I became used to the darkness, I did notice there was a very faint green led light in the upper right hand corner of the room…most likely night vision video surveillance. If my hands had been free, I would have flipped the fucker off, but instead I glared before positioning myself to scoot across the floor, attempting to examine the chain and the place where it connected to the floor.

I felt tears floating along my lower lids when I realized that the chain was thick and strong, as was the u-shaped metal that was sunk directly into the concrete I found under the shag carpeting. This was not going to be any point of weakness to exploit. It was hard to feel my way around, having to lie on my side to expose my hands to the floor below. I shifted the carpet a bit more to see if I could find anything hidden beneath when I heard the muted sound of something shifting to my right in the carpet. I lifted the carpet a little higher, hearing the sound again.

I fought to wriggle my way in the direction of the sound, feeling around the deep nap of the carpeting with my face, trying not to gag at the cloying smell. I nearly yelled in triumph when my nose came in contact with something long and metal. I nudged it a few more times before using my mouth to pick it up, letting out a cheer when I saw it was a key…I just hoped it was a key to something for me.

Getting my hands free was nearly impossible. I had been so relieved when I finally managed to get the key into my hand by dropping it on the floor and rolling on my side again to pick it up. The lock was even angled a little so that I was able to slide the key into the hole after a lot of adjusting, but turning the key without turning the whole lock turned out to be the hardest part.

I had no sense of time while I was fighting with the key and the lock, but finally a loud click and the sudden release in tension on my left wrist told me that I had managed to unlock the extremely heavy metal u-shaped lock from the rectangular base. A few grunts and wiggles later, the hand restraints fell free, allowing me to move my aching arms to the front of my body. My legs were so stiff from being forced into that same position for so long, as well as my shoulders from the strain of being wrenched behind my back, that I couldn't resist the tears.

I lay flat a few moments, panting before sitting up to see why my legs were still restrained. I noticed that it had been a smaller chain linking my arms to my legs and another, larger pad lock kept my bound together. I knew it was a waste of effort, but still yanked the key from the first lock and tried it on the larger lock, but with no luck. With a whimper, I shifted back over on my hands and knees and began shuffling around on the carpet, sweeping my hands back and forth in search of a second key. I found two more planted keys, but neither fit the lock.

The stress and the dark were starting to be too much, my panic that my time was running out starting to take over, when suddenly something changed. I didn't even realize that there was another sound in the room until it was missing. I glanced up toward the light to see it had been extinguished, along with the small whirring sound of some sort of ventilation system. I couldn't help but smirk to myself. Either it was my lucky day, or my boys sorted out that my signal was being blocked and forced an electrical shutdown, but either way, Caulfield's jammer was no doubt out of commission. I only had to hope that we weren't so far underground that my GPS signal wouldn't be able to penetrate.

Feeling a sense of renewed strength, I began testing the edges of the carpet all around the room. A loud rumble started down the hall moments before the ventilation restarted as well as the light in the corner. I had made it down two walls, checking the edge of the carpet as I went. I was just about to give up when the shag raised under my hand. I felt in the dark and did a fist pump when I laid fingers on a larger metal key.

Seconds later, I was free of the foot shackles and trying to stand, the intense tingling in my feet making it nearly impossible to keep my footing. I leaned against the wall, bringing along the shorter chain that had bound my hands so I had some sort of weapon, as I shuffled toward the door, keeping a mental picture of where I left the other keys in case one of them is needed to open it. When I reached the door, however, I was surprised to find it unlocked. I opened the door to find a dimly lit corridor of concrete waiting for me.

I wrapped the chain around my right hand twice, leaving a good eight inches of chain hanging down to use at a distance if necessary and leaned against the wall as I shuffled to the right, hoping I was headed out, but also knowing he was probably watching every move I made. The first door I came to was dark inside, the overwhelming stench of excrement told me that it was most likely another cell, one I certainly didn't want to be stuck in. I shut the door quickly and continued on my way.

I came to a utilitarian bathroom, a living room that looked as though it stepped right out of the 1960's, complete with hideous colored furniture and an ancient TV with bunny ears, which no doubt picked up no signal at all. There were even fake window frames in this particular room, fading pictures of a green lawn stretching out to meet a blue sky mounted behind the frames. It actually was more chilling to me than the cell I had been in for whatever reason.

The next door led to a supply room, the ladder leading up I the far right corner of the room making me smile with the hope that I had found the way out. I checked over my shoulder before moving to stand at the bottom of the ladder. As quietly as I could, I moved up the steps and braced my hand against the heavy trap door, only to have nothing happen. I stepped a little higher, bracing my shoulder against the door, but not even the slightest budge of the gray metal.

My breathing began to speed and the tears began to fall before I even took my first step down, my worst nightmare growing more and more real with every passing moment. My vision was so blurred with my tears, and my thoughts so distracted, I hadn't even known he was behind me until his arms wrapped around my waist his hot breath brushing the skin under my ear as one hand slid up my sternum to grip my chin roughly and tip my head back.

"I knew you wouldn't disappoint me, Belladonna. You were always meant to be mine…to be here with me. I have a dream, Bella, a dream to have the perfect family, the perfect life…I just needed the perfect woman. I went through a lot of ladies before I found you. It started long before I met Royce, but together we helped each other grow. He helped me present a better face to the world, and I…I taught him how to execute the perfect abduction and how to get away with it…time and time again."

I was trembling, trying not to do anything too rash until I had a better opportunity as he licked my neck and pawed at my body. Either he hadn't noticed the chain or didn't think I could do anything with it. Either way, I wasn't going to bring attention to it…at least not yet. I let him lead me further away from the stairs and press me against a wall as he continued talking, so smug in his perfection, so convinced that he had it all mapped out. He explained how he'd been shown this place by his foster father, the man who built the bunker during the paranoia that followed World War II. As the cold war waged on, the man made another discovery…his safe place also made for the perfect safe place to take his victims, the children he tortured and abused, scaring them into never telling the authorities what had happened to them. Then one day he met young Jamie Caulfield, underestimating him immediately due to his size and appearance. James Caulfield was the last child to ever enter the front doors of that house, and the foster parents suddenly became hermits, paying their bills through channels and having food delivered so they didn't have to be seen…so nobody would see that they were no longer living above ground at all. They stayed there for years until they finally died from captivity and were buried in the back yard, under the wife's prize flowers.

James took up permanent residence in this place after that, coming and going through the back door I had been trying to escape through that eventually came out in a shed in the back yard. He captured women and brought them here, to test them, to see if they were worthy, and when they weren't, they too were buried with the owners of the house. There were already ten bodies out there before Royce King ever found his twin, fifteen by the time James had prepared him to go back out into the world the find 'the one that got away.' And ten more in the past several years since James had been capable of going out into the world to find more suitable, and yet still unworthy, prospects. My heart broke for those girls as he spoke of them as nothing more than trash.

I'd almost numbed myself completely to his touch as his hands slid over my most intimate places. It was like I was out of my own body, watching it from afar. I could feel the shock kicking in.

"But you…oh you my Bella Donna, my truly worthy equal. You will be the bearer of my future. We are going to make a life here and you are going to bear me the children I know I deserve. You will adore me and love me and we will raise my sons together to continue my legacy. They will learn to earn everything and be worthy of all that they have and prune that which isn't worthy."

He was babbling endlessly in his self effacing soliloquy, not noticing the small creaking sound down the hall. I took a deep breath and braced myself, tightening my grip on the chain and trying not to vomit as I came back into my body and felt his hands on me, touching me in ways that I would never allow. I could feel him smiling against my neck as he spoke when I interrupted him, my voice raspy.

"There's only one problem with your plan, James. " I tensed up and brought my chain covered hand up, making contact with his nose as I screamed out. "I'm not a victim!"

He released me immediately and grabbed his nose, already pouring with blood as I spun around and whipped the chain across his knees, knocking him to the floor. I didn't give him a chance to get up before I bolted out of the room and down the hallway toward the sound of the creak. I had to hope it was coming from the other exit and that my boys had found me somehow. I knew there was a chance it could be another co-conspirator, or even Victoria if she had survived, but I just felt with the power outage that it had to be my boys.

I was almost to the source of the sound when I heard a yell behind me. I screamed and tried to run faster, grateful that the feeling had now come back to my legs, but wishing they would go just a bit faster still. I skidded into a dark room where the creaking was coming from, feeling so relieved to find another set of stairs leading to another door. I climbed up and started banging on it with the chain, screaming for them to help. I could hear James drawing closer. I turned on the stairs to lean against the rungs, grabbing the chain more tightly in my hand to whip it toward him again, this time going for his face and throat. His pounding steps were drawing closer as my heart beat faster and faster, and then with no warning, the metal above me was wrenched up and the warm voice I'd been begging to hear met my ears.

Emmett's loud voice quickly overpowered it. "Holy Fuck, Bella! What the?"

"Gun!" I yelled up at him. Emmett stepped at the opening of the door and pulled me up with one hand, while training his gun down into the space with the other, but James never showed in the room, apparently hearing their arrival.

"There's a second exit, through the shed. Send guns there too. As far as I know these are the only two ways out."

I was shaking, still in nothing but my underwear, my wrists and ankles raw and bleeding as Edward hugged me, taking me into a corner of the basement and shedding his jacket to put around me before wrapping me in his arms. Meanwhile, Emmett and two other agents disappeared down into the bunker.

"I was so scared, Bella. I was so afraid we wouldn't find you."

I just nodded and cried against his chest. I vaguely remember Carlisle coming in, ordering some clothes be brought in for me while squints flooded the scene, documenting and taking samples. It was always hard going through that as an agent, but it was so much worse being the victim. Soon Rose arrived, bruised and cut. She was trembling with fear, but insisted on coming to me, handing me some clothes and helping me put them on with shaky hands while Edward shielded us with his body and his coat.

"You shouldn't have done this to yourself, Rosalie. You didn't have to come back here."

Rose had tears in her eyes as she looked at me. "You came in here to save me. The least I can do is face this place to help you."

We both fell together with loud sobs as Edward turned to face us, looking at a loss. Eventually he curled his arms around the both of us, calming us before leading us back out through the house and to the waiting van, which took me to the hospital for a more thorough checkup. I was relatively certain he had yet to take part in carnal knowledge of my body while I was sedated, but I didn't know for sure. I was more than a little relieved when tests confirmed that the only thing wrong with me was a few bruised body parts and quite a bit of skin tearing…nothing that wouldn't heal eventually. Well, the outside would heal easily, but the rest, I wasn't so sure.

Edward stayed at my side through everything. He left the room for my exams, but was back by my side the second the exams were over. He held my hand while I gave my statement and went out of his way to make sure I had everything I needed during my five hour stay.

We actually got lucky in finding the bunker. With the existence of Caulfield, there was a chance that King's lawyers would appeal on the grounds that there was no way to prove King was guilty when his and Caulfield's DNA was so similar, but there was more than enough evidence in the bunker to link them both to everything. One team coming from one end and the other coming in from the shed, Caulfield ended up being caught, ironically enough, in my cell. With the undeniable evidence and the over two dozen bodies found buried in the back yard, there was no doubt in my mind that neither brother would ever see the light of day again.

When we returned to HQ that night, everyone was exhausted. When Edward offered to drive me home and stay with me, I jumped at the opportunity, not wanting to be alone at night in a dark apartment. He was so sweet as he tucked me in and kissed my forehead after I was all dressed for bed, turning to walk out of the room and crash on my couch. He was almost to the door when I called out to him, my voice sounding so small and weak, I would have sworn it was a small girl instead of my own.

"Edward, would you please stay in here with me? I don't want to be alone." He looked over his shoulder at me, a look of concern crossing his face. I knew what he was thinking…trauma, co-dependence, post-traumatic attachment, and so on. I smiled and shook my head.

"I would have wanted it before Baltimore. If I'm honest, I've wanted it for a long time, but I was being stubborn about the boss/employee relationship thing…and it's not even the FBI's rule since you're contract."

He licked his lips and stared at me a long time before cautiously crossing over to my bed to sit on the edge before lying woodenly beside me, doing his best not to touch me. I rolled to face him with a sigh before reaching over to take his hand and rest it on my waist.

"I need to know that safe touching is still possible. I need to know that I can trust this. I know I can, but I need reminding. Please, Edward."

His green eyes darted back and forth between both of mine, before he relaxed, scooting closer and wrapping his arm around my waist, his nose nuzzling into my hair that was resting on the pillow between us.

"Thank you, Edward."

He smiled, sadness shining in his eyes. "Anything for you, Bella…Always."

I closed my eyes and smiled softly as I let the darkness surround me, the warmth of Edward beside me reminding me that I was home, safe and sound.


	12. Epilogue 30 months later

_**A**_**uthor's Note: Well this wraps up ROTK with a nice little pastel bow. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to my beta AgoodWITCH and her red pen, as well as the WC ladies who encouraged me as I wrote. Thank you for each and every review! This will be my last post for a while, but never fear, I'm stocking up on chapters for plot bunnies during the break and will probably be able to jump back in with a regular posting schedule when I do. Thanks again and I hope you like the ending!**

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**Epilogue…30 months later**

The legal process to put James Caulfield away for good began three months after he was put behind bars. Between motions, continuations, requests for changes in venue, and so forth, it was over two years after the process began that Rose and I found ourselves holding hands in the courtroom, Edward and Emmett on either side of us, their arms curled around us protectively as we prepared to testify. We were the first, only in the room for proof of presence before being led out so we would not be swayed by one another's testimony.

It had, however, been arranged that after we had testified, we would be allowed to sit in on the remainder of the trial, a reminder to the jury that well over two dozen victims fell at the hands of the criminal under scrutiny, and we were the only two that had ever escaped. Our schedules had been cleared for the foreseeable future, as this trial was expected to drag on for weeks.

My heart was already pounding in my ears when they bailiff lead Caulfield in wearing his orange jumpsuit and cuffs on his arms and legs. Edward's arm tightened around my shoulder as he glared back at me, an evil crooked smirk on his face. I swallowed and met his gaze without wavering; trying hard not to betray the panic I was feeling inside.

I could feel myself breathing a bit harder when Edward leaned over to whisper in my ear. "Are you okay, Bella? If this is too much for you, we can ask to delay your testimony. You have to be careful not to over exert yourself."

I took a deep breath before turning to look into Edward's worry-filled green eyes. I smiled as best I could, taking his hand off his lap and resting it on my stomach. "We're fine. We're a tough lot, Daddy. We can handle it."

Edward's hand caressed my distended stomach lovingly, smiling as our little boy kicked his hand on one of the passes. He looked up at me with glassy eyes, resting his hand over the place where our son had just reached out to him.

"Just promise me that if this gets to be too much, you will tell us. This trial is not worth the wellbeing of you or him." He patted his fingers over the spot twice to emphasize his point.

I smiled and held his face in my hands. "I promise. I love you, Edward."

He smiled back, leaning forward to kiss my forehead softly. "I love you too, Bella."

After the entire situation with Caulfield, we both decided life was too short. We told our bosses about our relationship, allowed them to split us up at the bureau, and never looked back. While Edward was worth his weight in gold as a profiler, he was worth so much more as my boyfriend, and about a year later, my husband.

The same had been true of Emmett and Rosalie. The bureau let me choose who to keep and that was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. In the end, I decided I couldn't lose Emmett and Edward, so I let Rose move to the same division as Edward while we ended up getting stuck with Jane on a permanent basis. It wasn't too bad though, as she eventually learned her place, especially after she made a move on Edward and got shot down and threatened to have every string at his disposal pulled to have her cut off from the bureau for good. She tried to call his bluff, only to realize he wasn't when he opened his phone and made a direct call to director Arogani. Jane kissed Edward's ass and then proceeded to be a hell of a lot more respectful to me after that as well. I wouldn't say working with her was fun, but it was tolerable at least.

Rose and I actually got pregnant only a few months apart. She ended up having to come back from maternity leave a week early to be part of these trials. Leaving little Emma behind was actually the hardest part for her. Now my only hope was that our little Parker could wait out the lengthy trial before making his appearance. My back had been hurting a lot more in the past week or so, and I couldn't help but worry he was already beginning to drop. I was supposed to have eight more weeks, which I hoped was enough time for the trail to be wrapped up, but babies didn't really pay attention to such things. All I could do was pray and hope.

Before I knew it, the bailiff stepped forward and ordered the court to rise as he introduced the Honorable Judge Clifford C. Wilson. Edward helped me lift my awkward self out of the chair to stand for the Judge to tromp in looking important before he helped me sit back down when we were instructed to be seated. For the next two hours, we sat and listened as the judge instructed the jury before each lawyer got to set out their opening remarks.

Finally, after the defense lawyer wrapped up his soliloquy, the judge asked for the witnesses that would testify to leave the room. I felt another chill when Caulfield eyed me darkly as Edward stood before turning to help me up and then guiding me down the aisle with a soothing and rubbing my lower back.

The wait was torture. Rose paced the floors, griping that they took her phone away in the courthouse and wondering how Emmybug was doing while I lie on my side on the small loveseat upon Edward's insistence and watched Rose pace while he sat in a chair at my feet, rubbing them gently. There were parts of pregnancy that sucked, the swollen legs and ankles were just one little aspect. The docs didn't like it either, especially since my blood pressure had been running a little high. Edward was right to be concerned, high blood pressure could be very dangerous during pregnancy, but I had to do my best to be here. I wanted the jury to be reminded that there were victims, and unless the doctors flat out told me no, or I went into labor, which we needed to hold off for another several weeks before it would be safe for the baby, I was going to be right here, every day, no matter how much of a pain in the ass the uncomfortable seats in the court room were.

Rose was called in first. She was gone a really long time, so long in fact that court adjourned after they were finished with her testimony. She was a sobbing mess when the bailiff brought her back to the room. Emmett and I ran to her and held her close, trying to calm her as she nearly hyperventilated. She wasn't allowed to tell me about what was said, but I distinctly heard her mumble, "he's the devil," between gasps. Very little ever rattled Rosalie Hale-McCarty, so her emotional state left me reeling.

Once we calmed her down, Edward, Emmett, Rose, and I made our way out of the courthouse, our husbands shielding us from the compressing sea of reporters and photographers, hoping for any sound bite of heart rending picture they could capture. Once we were past the worst of it, we made a dash for the cars…well as much of a dash as a waddling pregnant woman can make. Edward kept his eye on me as we made our way home, starting a warm shower for me before rushing downstairs to sort out supper while I did my best to strip out of my clothes and hose. Making a pregnant woman have to wear hose and dress shoes in her 8th month should be against the Geneva Convention.

I sighed as I stood under the warm spray, reminding myself that I couldn't stay in too long and risk overheating. I had to admit, I was really looking forward to the point after delivery when I could take a bath again with a glass of wine and a coffee chaser. I missed my vices. It was worth losing them all for my little boy, but it was still going to be nice when I could indulge a little again.

When I finished toweling off and slipping into a robe, I left the bathroom and shuffled through the house to find my handsome, caring husband sitting a large colorful salad in the middle of the table. He looked up and smiled before pulling out a chair for me to sit in. Our meal was quiet and Edward's eyes on me the whole time was more than a little frustrating, but at the same time, I was grateful that he cared so much.

We tucked in early, Edward snuggled up to my back and I struggled to get my body pillow just right in order to support my stomach and rest between my knees. I smiled as I felt him kissing my shoulders before burying his nose in my hair and drifting off into a steady, even breathing pattern.

My night was restless, and while I wasn't anywhere near ready to face that courtroom, I was definitely ready to get out of bed when morning dawned. I dressed again in the same maternity suit with a different shirt underneath. I could only hope that if the jury did notice, they would be understanding that I just didn't have the money to spend on a half a dozen tailored maternity suits for this trial that I would never be able to wear again. Even when I went to have another baby, I wouldn't wear those doggone things unless I had no other recourse. I never really minded wearing a suit before, but these maternity ones were a pain in the butt, tummy panels always threatening to peak out and further remind the world that I was a whale. Thanks, but no thanks.

When we reached the court house, the DA pulled me into a conference room for one last briefing before I took the stand. I was anxious, but I had to do it. I was trembling as I walked into the court room and took the stand, my eyes flitting for the briefest of moments toward Caulfield and his evil smirk before I locked eyes on the lawyer before me and made a point to never look his way again.

Retelling my story was painful. I had always prided myself on being strong and being able to deal with anything, and yet what I endured with Caulfield had broken something inside me, and that weak link led to me crying more than once on the stand…well that and pregnancy hormones. In truth it was a wonder they could understand a single word coming out of my mouth.

I chanced a glance at the jury, most of which looked on me with pity, but there were a few stony faces that made me worried Caulfield might somehow get out of this after all he had pulled. My testimony took the whole morning, the lawyer for the defense trying hard to find some kind of flaw in my story, but failed. There was no flaw to find, because it was straight up truth.

What had seemed like three years by the time I stepped down from the podium, ended up only being three hours. The judge dismissed the court for lunch as soon as I was near the door. I tried to eat, but it was nearly impossible to swallow past the bowling ball trapped in my esophagus.

After lunch, it was Edward's turn to take the stand. The DA said Rose and I were allowed to return to the court room for the remainder of the trial. We stuck to each others' side as we walked up to the front row and took a seat. I stared anywhere but toward Caulfield, not looking his way, but still feeling his beady eyes on me. It made the bitter bile rise so high in my throat I could taste the metallic tang on my tongue. I swallowed hard to suppress the urge to vomit all over the courtroom and focused on being strong for my husband.

The second Edward took the stand, his eyes zeroed in on me. Even in the hot seat, I was still his first priority. I smiled and mouthed 'love you' to him just as the bailiff approached and made his take the oath. All of my attention was focused on him as he spoke, my heart nearly shattering into a million pieces by the pain of his memory.

"Dr. Cullen, could you please detail to the court the sequence of events on the day in question after Agent Swan-Cullen entered the house?"

Edward took a deep stabilizing breath, his eyes trained on me as he spoke.

"I was already anxious for her to be going in there…and before the defense can ask, no we were not together at that time. She was just Agent Swan. We were watching in the van as we covered the empty house, and there seemed to be nothing there. I remember hating her going into the basement without backup, but we didn't think we had much choice. We had taken every precaution that we could. It's not often we send an agent in with six forms of surveillance and tracking sensors on them. The basement seemed clear and Agent Swan said she was exiting the premises and gave directions to expand the search to the other leads we had in a hope to find Dr. Hale. Thankfully, we had received the report she had been found alive at the Conservatory in the park. Agent Swan-Cullen said she was leaving, and my father, a consultant on the case, left us behind to bring her back to our temporary HQ and went on to check on Dr. Hale. Moments later, the screens went blank. We lost all feeds on her, audio, video, and GPS."

He stopped to take a breath, his hands wringing together in his lap. "Agents Uley, Johson, and I rushed inside, and down to the basement, but there was nothing there except Agent Swan's gun, flashlight, the audio that had been taped to her chest, and her shoes. There was no sign whatsoever of her or the suspect."

Edward paused and did not continue as he stared at me and swallowed hard, the haunted look in his eyes making my heart pound in my chest. Eventually, the DA persuaded him to continue.

"What was your next course of action, Dr. Cullen?"

Edward shook his head a little and glanced away from me to the lawyer and then back to me again before looking down at his hands.

"We called my father and the rest of the unit back and then we searched everywhere, the house, the yard, we knocked on the neighboring houses, there was no trace of them at all. We saw no signs of struggle, no signs of Agent Swan being dragged away from the house, which we knew had to be the case, because she is well trained and would never have gone willingly with him, especially after hearing Dr. Hale was safe. It didn't make any sense. Feeling frustrated and convinced that the other surveillance equipment was our best chance in finding her, I camped out in the van for the next several hours, watching the blank monitors for any signs or hints of her whereabouts."

"We had more or less reasoned that there must have been some kind of jamming signal, since Agent Swan was communicating with us moments before her signals all went dark. Our one hope was to cut the power to the block and hope that in doing so, it would interrupt the jamming frequency and give us another clue. It took a long time to convince a judge that we needed the warrant and were even at the right place, but eventually he signed the warrant. An hour later, the power went down on the whole block and a single signal came through. It was the video link from the FBI pin Agent Swan had worn on her vest, but it didn't tell us much. It was in the dark with a tiny sliver of visual."

Edward swallowed and cleared his throat, his Adam's Apple bobbing hard above his tie.

"At first nobody could make out what it was, but after staring a few minutes, I figured it out. I didn't even say anything, for fear that we would lose feed before I found it. Several agents and my father followed. I ran down the basement and began walking across the large tiles of the floor, looking to see if I could find where it was. I examined the angle of the stair risers in relation to the flooring, and found what I thought I saw. Using my fingers, I tried to pry up the heavy ceramic square, but I couldn't. Agent McCarty then left and returned with a crowbar, claiming that while the neighborhood was out of power still, we had lost signal. The other agents were searching for a generator that might have been activated."

"Agent McCarty started prying the ceramic tile, only to realize that the tile under his foot was also reacting to his efforts. He took a step to the side and tried again, bringing four tiles connected by a metal rebar frame up from the floor. It had a handle on the underside and had a hidden hinge that allowed it to swing back and reveal a large metal trap door. On the top sat Agent Swan's pin. How it managed to stay there and lead us to the door, I'll never know, but without it we probably would not have found her."

His eyes were boring into me, and being his wife, I saw all the things he wasn't saying out loud. I'd heard bits and pieces of this story before, but never in one long sequence. The jury had no clue how panicked and desperate Edward had felt, but I did. I saw it in every gesture, every breath. My heart ached for him, knowing he was pondering what would have happened had they not found me when they did.

After another long pause, the DA stepped in again. "What happened after that Dr. Cullen?"

He took in a deep breath and smiled sadly. "The trapdoor was sealed, but Agent McCarty, me, and the two other agents with us worked together to pry up the door. Once we broke the seal, it was relatively easy for Agent McCarty to open the door. We were all shocked when Agent Swan was standing on the stairs leading up in nothing but her underwear yelling for McCarty to hand her a gun. Instead, Agent McCarty pulled her up while aiming his weapon down the hole. I took Agent Swan, wrapped her in my jacket as she tried to tell me things we needed to know through chattering teeth. Agents McCarty, Uley, and Johnson went down after Caulfield while I tended to Agent Swan. Other agents went down the back door Agent Swan informed us of that came up in the shed and they apprehended Caulfield while I got Agent Swan to the ambulance."

The DA shot me a look before moving between Edward and I to block his eyeline. "What else did you discover after the apprehension of Mr. Caulfield?"

Edward cleared his throat, his voice growing strong again. He was back to the vetted profiler I knew and loved. "Agent Swan shared some information that Caulfield used to taunt her while in captivity. With warrant in hand, we discovered the bodies of twenty-eight individuals buried under the flower gardens in the rear of the house. The location had once been a foster home in which Caulfield and lived, and true to form for a psychopathic individual burned and eventually abused in the foster system, he took out his revenge on the man who took his innocence and the wife who did nothing to stop it. From Agent Swan's debriefing, we discovered that Mr. Rosenbloom, original owner of the residence at which we discovered the bodies, utilized the bomb shelter below his home to molest his young wards. I believe Caulfield internalized the trauma and then turned it on his aggressor, but taking his revenge did not slake his anger, so he strived to provide for himself the perfect life, collecting women in search of the perfect bride to complete his mental picture. When they did not live up to his standards, he killed and disposed of them."

The lawyer nodded and crossed the room looking cocky. "And in your professional opinion as a world renowned Psychologist and Criminal Profiler, do you feel that the evident supports your theories?"

Edward nodded gravely. "Yes, sir, I do."

He asked a few more questions before passing Edward on for cross examination. The lawyer didn't have much to go on, save the repeated mention of a romantic relationship with me. Edward was honest, and from the looks on the jury's faces, they weren't swayed from his credibility thanks to that detail. Emmett was brought in next before the court adjourned for the day.

I took my husband home that night and insisted he let me baby him for a change, not that he didn't fight tooth and nail. After we cleaned up our rather large steak supper, we made love before falling asleep in one another's arms, incredibly grateful to have made it out the other side together.

For six more weeks the trail drug on. It was uncomfortable and frustrating, and while all I really wanted to do was go home and put my swollen blimp-like excuses for feet up, I was there every single day, all the way through closing arguments. The sequestered jury went into closed deliberations. We expected it to take a week or more, but to our great surprise, they came back with a verdict the next afternoon.

The morning the verdict came in, I woke up feeling achy and exhausted, having not rested well thanks to a little boy who was enjoying using my bladder as a trampoline. My back ached as we walked up the many stairs that led to the courthouse, and only got worse as the morning wore on while we paced in the room we had been given to wait in away from the media and prying eyes.

Around ten in the morning, I felt my first twinge in my lower abdomen. I shrugged it off as Braxton-Hicks contractions. When I'd had five more before noon, I was starting to think I might need to tell Edward, but decided to wait. They were getting stronger though, and my overprotective husband was starting to notice.

I bit my lip and closed my eyes as one more hit hard at 1:22 in the afternoon, just as the bailiff came in to tell us that the jury had returned with a verdict. I wanted to cheer and cry at the same time…but in the end I reasoned first time deliveries always take a really long time. Everyone talks about it. I might have another twenty-four hours or more before our little boy popped out, so surely another hour or so to hear the verdict wouldn't hurt. Right?

The jury entered and the foreman handed the piece of paper to the bailiff who then took it to the judge. The judge read it and nodded before returning it to the foreman to read aloud. The pain that hit in that moment was hard, making me lean forward to brace myself on the seat in front of me as Edward leaned down by me, whispering in concern.

"On the count of first degree murder of…"

The man's voice was drowned out by the whooshing in my ears as another pain hit, making my eyes flash white. I managed to hear a distant "guilty" through my pain. I would have cheered, but I was just beginning to be able to breathe normally.

"On the count of…" I struggled to breathe as I felt a popping sensation in my stomach seconds before the warm liquid flowed down my legs to pool at my feet.

I felt my tears welling in my eyes as I grabbed Edward's arm and hissed. "My WATER just broke. We have to go to the hospital NOW!"

Edward looked around in a panic before looking up at the judge as the foreman continued on. The judge cracked the first smile I had seen in over a month and nodded before nodding toward a bailiff at the back of the room who came to help us. Just as the door closed behind us, I heard the loud echo of the fourth "guilty." He was going to be put away for a very long time, having been convicted of every single charge, he was never going to be a free man again.

I paused with another contraction as Edward knelt beside me. "Holy Shit, Bella. These are less than three minutes apart. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

I gasped and gripped his arm tightly until finally the contraction passed. "It takes forever to deliver your first. I wanted to know before I left."

He smirked at me and shook his head as the guard beside me went ash white.

"That's not entirely true, Ma'am. My firstborn was delivered less than three hours after my wife's first contraction. You might deliver sooner than you think. Can I please call for an ambulance for you? Between the media and everything else, it would be much safer."

We both nodded, Edward rubbing my back lovingly as we waited. Five minutes later, the bailiff came back, leading me to a side door where an ambulance waited for us. As luck would have it, three camera crews were waiting, having seen the ambulance and having a hunch.

"Agent Cullen, Why are you being taken away in an ambulance?" "Dr. Cullen, is your wife in labor?""Agent Cullen, Did the stress of the trial make your water break?" "Dr. Cullen, would you like to share the verdict with us?" "Agent…"

The door closed, leaving me alone in the back of the ambulance with a medic and Edward. Another contraction hit hard, making me bend over and gasp. I felt so much pressure between my legs, it was like I needed to push it out of the way. The female EMT made me lay back on the gurney and then cut off my hose and underwear, warning me she was going to check my progress and then gasping and looking down with wide eyes.

"Jack! This baby is already crowning. I think we should deliver before we get enroute!"

My eyes grew wide and teary as I stared at a shocked Edward. He shook his head quickly before leaning over me, holding my hand.

"It's going to be okay, Bella. I'm here. Parker's going to be fine."

The other EMT got out of the front and came around to the back, the lady covering me so nobody would get a show when he opened the door and stepped inside with us. Ten minutes and a handful of pushes later, Parker Masen Cullen was born…on the side street of the courthouse…with now seven camera crews waiting like hawks outside the rig. When Parker let out his first cry, you could hear the clamor of excited voices.

The female EMT, I now knew was Denise, held up a blanket to retain our privacy as Jack went back to the front to drive us to the hospital. I held little Parker as he looked around with wide eyes, while Edward leaned down next to us and cooed at him between kissing me on the forehead and telling me how amazing I was.

Three hours later, Parker and I both were declared perfectly healthy and were resting in my private room when Rosalie, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Carlisle, and Esme all arrived with balloons and flowers and stories galore..not the least of which was the final conviction of Caulfield. The judge handed down sentencing immediately…death by lethal injection. We would never have to worry about James Caulfield ever again.

The grandparents went first, cooing down at a happy Parker before he was passed around to the rest of the crowd. Two hours later, we were alone again, just the three of us, feeling much lighter knowing that we would never have to worry about 'The King' ever again.


End file.
